I've just started working with a recruiter a former manager introduced me to. While I appreciate what they are doing, as jrockway pointed out with playing hardball regarding salary, I often feel that they don't have any interest in me whatsoever. Communication is, at best, sporadic and every time I've been to their office, I hear a bunch of yelling, see paper airplanes flying and general lackadaisical attitudes.
This is my first experience with a recruiter and I can't say I'd recommend it to anyone. It's much better to market one's self than to rely on others, even if they can negotiate a better salary.
Recruiters work on commission, so they're in the same boat as real estate agents and used car salesmen. There are good ones out there, but they're all constantly looking for the next payday. It's like sharks - they have to keep swimming or they die. If you're not likely to get them cash in the immediate future, then you're exactly right - they don't care.
Recruiters are more like Doctors than used car salesmen. They are a necessary evil for some companies who have a problem that they can't solve on their own. People don't like going to the doctor and they don't like going to a recruiter, but sometimes you just have to do it to get on with things. You can self-medicate before going to the doctor and you can go to the online classifieds, but that isn't the answer for you every time. Just remember that recruiters are not all STAFFING AGENCY PEOPLE.
Sorry, but I have to call bullshit on this one. I've been working in the IT sector for more than 15 years and I haven't seen a recruiter yet (whether agency or in-house) that cared that much about any of their candidates ... unless they had a position open at the time and could cash in.
It's not much different from the employer's point of view either. Unless your vacancy is for something which is very low skilled, you're much better off making contacts through your existing programmers or reaching out to local user groups.
I've had recruiters berate me for asking for a resonable salary. One said I was being foolish and that I had "over-exaggerated self tendancies", whatever those might be.
Apparently wanting to be paid $10K more then I was getting working in a supermarket as a drone was rediculous.
This is my first experience with a recruiter and I can't say I'd recommend it to anyone. It's much better to market one's self than to rely on others, even if they can negotiate a better salary.