I disagree. The cost isn't always just "trashing an email without a response." Many times recruiters will mislead you and waste your time with downright decepti

I disagree. The cost isn't always just "trashing an email without a response." Many times recruiters will mislead you and waste your time with downright deceptive practices. I once had a recruiter contact me about a product management job with a fairly well known company in New York City. After a couple of emails and a phone conversation it came to light that he wasn't actually recruiting for the PM position he contacted me for, but rather a junior programming position in their office in Utah. When I laughed and said I was only (possibly) interested in the position that he had originally contacted me for, he went so far as to try to explain to me why I was unqualified for a PM job and that I should seriously consider a job which, quite frankly, I was rather overqualified for and for which they would not have been able to afford my services. Besides being insulting, he wasted my time by intentionally misleading me, which angered me more than anything. Stories like these are the reason the recruiting profession has a bad name. I know of and have worked with some very high-quality recruiters who were earnest and upfront and understood the position for which they were recruiting very well. I think that the few horrible recruiters who waste everyone's time destroy the reputation of the occupation.