This is great and refreshing to hear. I treat recruiters with respect because: a.) I've been down-and-out before and consider myself blessed to be in demand, b.) their job seems pretty tough, and c.) it would be really arrogant to complain about someone offering me work.
You may want to look closer. Many are complete scumbags. Here are some things the unscrupulous ones do:
* Pretend to have positions they don't, so they can claim to have thousands of candidates on their rolls
* Edit resumes/CVs they submit to add fictitious information
* Scrape positions from companies and pretend they are front ending those positions, even though they have no relationship to the company, and the job spec says "no recruiters" or similar.
* Make no effort to match candidates and positions
ie they aren't offering actual work, they are lying about what they offer, and they do not have the companies or candidates best interests at heart. It is quite hard to tell the difference between a competent recruiter and a scumbag. One simple thing to do is Google parts of email they send you.
The thing is, there are bad recruiters... but there are also good recruiters. I've worked with a few great recruiters that actually took the time to match me with a position i'd truly like. Guys like this may be rare, but they exist.
The problem is that they're all clamoring for more than their fair share of my attention, even when what they have to offer doesn't make a lot of sense. Profitable recruiters are optimizing for the first candidate who didn't resign and wasn't bad enough to dismiss in the first n months, because they aren't rewarded any more for better diligence and outstanding candidate/position fits (if anything, mediocre fits and turnover yield more business down the line).
Time is indeed scarce and I agree that the industry is probably too focused on short-term goals. I'm referring to the recent trend of bagging on recruiters and publicly humiliating them. I try to live and let live while being grateful that I'm not unemployed like many other people I know...
#1 question to ask a recruiter offering you an interview: Have they placed someone else at the same company.
If the recruiter is worth working with, they have a contract with target employers, and aren't just as disconnected as you are as a prospect.
