> "Some head hunters are decent – I worked a little bit with bamboo talent and they were actually fantastic. But most still are used car salespeople trying to sell you bad goods."<p>Most? I'm not sure I'd be so uncharitable, but certainly _a lot_ are. And they and their jobs are overrepresented for the same reason poor candidates are: anyone who struggles to 'sell' is going to compensate for a poor 'product' by making more noise about it. These are the recruiters who phone persistently, edit your resume and even sometimes apply for roles on your behalf, without permission.<p>But how do you find a good recruiter? I mean, someone patient and sensible who isn't going to go into meltdown if they can't reach me in a meeting, littering my voicemail messages.<p>Whilst we're on the subject: recruiters who won't take 'no' for an answer. I had an interview last year and turned down a second stage, at which point my consultant basically exploded and angrily demanded a list of reasons why, refusing to accept any I gave, and telling me I'd wasted everyone's time when I'd only agreed to interview after extensive arm-twisting anyway. I just didn't think it was an interesting job and my interview quickly confirmed that. Experiences like these make me dread recruiters.