Why Recruiters Are Bad For Your Career

(1) Companies are horrible at hiring in whole a lot of ways, most especially at writing meaningful job specs + quite often, simply knowing what forums to post job ads in.

(2) Candidates suck at marketing themselves (though not quite as much as companies are at writing job specs + knowing where to post them).

(3) And back to the company's side, a lack of a "DYI mentality", i.e. that this is something that not only they can do themselves, but which really ought not to be outsourced, given the absolutely crucial and strategic role it plays in their chances for success moving forward.

Taken together, these lead to a lot of pressure for hiring managers + HR types to throw in the towel, and let hiring be a numbers game, i.e. get as many resumes in the inbox with as little effort as possible, in the hopes that the 1 or 2 decent candidates will stick out like sore thumbs.

Which also leads to a tendency to simply blow candidates off when the search pool narrows, and other accidental gruffness. And this is where recruiters do provide a value-added service of a sort, in that their job to say "no" to a candidate, thus serving as a lightening rod for the negative feelings that tend to arise when the decision turns negative.