When I was younger I preferred recruiters. Now that I’m at a more senior level, I’ve found recruiters to be a net negative. The reason is that, as your salary grows, so does the commission paid to the recruiter. Companies have been much more reluctant to hire me because doing so means an instant $30,000+ expense for an unknown amount of benefit. As a result, the interviews were onerous and largely a waste of time (multiple extra rounds, meeting with outside consultants, answering the same question over and over, etc.).