> "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."

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.

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.

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.