Has anyone ever had a successful encounter with recruiters?

You did not get up on the wrong side of the bed. In my experience, they operate truly as a business and you are just a number. They assign characteristics to each number/candidate and match them to the characteristics of the opening they are trying to fill. If the two match closely enough, they shoehorn you into the position any way they can. Non-measurable such as personality and company fit don't matter. They simply want to place as many candidates as possible as quickly as possible. I wouldn't work with them.

I am now obligated to type this........Have a Snickers bar!

Here's a fun experiment you can do in your free time. See if you get the same results.

Go to Google. Type in "recruiters are " without the quotes, but with a space after "are" and without hitting "enter" see what Google autocomplete offers as suggestions for possible completions to the phrase.

I get:

recruiters are the worst
recruiters are idiots
recruiters are liars
recruiters are dumb
recruiters are scum
recruiters are annoying
recruiters are stupid
recruiters are morons
recruiters are a joke
recruiters are a waste of time

I'm just saying, Wayne, you might not be alone.

Robert Half placed me in my current position. I've been contacted by a lot of recruiters, most of whom wanted to pitch me the latest "great opportunity." The Robert Half recruiter was different. She noted my non-traditional path to accounting and wanted to meet to learn more about me and what sort of new opportunities I might be looking for. I gave her a very specific set of criteria, including a narrow geographic area consisting of a few suburban communities. She did not waste my time with jobs outside these criteria. Within a few months, she presented what is now my current position. The new position had comparable pay and offered interesting and challenging work, but with a significantly shorter commute, a better schedule and work/life balance, and lower stress level. Plus, I work with great people. It's been a good fit. So, to answer Wayne's question: Yes.

I've had nothing but good experiences with Robert Half. When I was looking for a job, I found the Oakland office professional and the staff willing to take the time to get to know me. I wasn't placed, but I know it's because the recruiter knew where I would like to work and nothing fit me at the time.
As an employer, the Pleasanton, CA office has been great. They come to visit a couple of times a year and we email each other also. They have sent us good candidates that fit our business because they knew about our business. Perhaps the troubles I've read about above are more related to the individual recruiters?

Robert Half has a policy that they want to see the candidates in person even before they send candidates resume to the clients. I ran in to a situation here in Irvine, Southern California, where I must have visited that office five to six times... every time seen by a different rep... just because the former rep left the work... not sure if they were just killing their time....currently I have blocked them off on my cell....

Now because of the social media.. they like to set up the see the person by Skype... but have lost faith in them....

You can't judge the company by one employee. However, I believe they have a focus that is centered more on the controller position on down, rather than the CFO level. To fill a CFO position takes a lot more experience, knowledge and skill = a recruiter. For other positions they are more of a staffing agency = don't dig too deep into the candidate, just submit enough resumes to the hiring company. Similar to Amit, I have also experienced turnover in their recuiters.

Robert Half is a joke. They are just clueless, phony, talky sales people. Unicorns are way better!!

For what it is worth, I still receive emails from Robert Half (computer generated or individual recruiter) inquiring if I am interested in their Director of Accounting (and a few others at that level) opening/s.

RH is no different from other recruiters. I have had no luck with any of them. An occasional interview but that is all. Even when I have had the occasional interview the followup is usually along the line of they wanted industry experience which I did not have or they wanted someone local which I wasn't - stuff that made me wonder why I was there in the first place.
I have had much better luck finding work by talking to unicorns than working with recruiters.

I have reachedout to RH many times, consistenty. I have a strong resume with 25 years experience. I had great face to face interviews (2) with RH. One in person and one on Skype. Both people were warm, sincere, friendly, understanding. But then, I stopped being the one to contact them to see if they would reach out to me. They did not. I got automated emails with potential jobs. I had to send RH the links of the jobs I matched perfectly and even called RH, only to leave message, after message with no reply. Turns out they somehow lost my info, or one of their recruiters in another area had closed my file. Not sure how that happened, but I was very disappointed. I have called and left messages 4 times with no response. It's been a year since I engaged RH and they have still to respond. The reason they did not respond was my original assigned recruiter left, closed my file, and no one else picked it up. Yes, the ball was dropped on RH side. I still get their automated job emails that fit my profile (obviously did not lose everything about me). So, all-in-all, even though I was the actively pursuing one, they lacked being responsive. I have, since my initial contact, updated my resume, increased my knowlege base, gained some incredible education (getting my MBA), and have a wonderful job found by personal references, which is the best way, in my opinion. I definitely felt like I had to fit in the box with RH. My experience with them is neutral, especially when they were too busy to return my calls. Good luck in your pursuits!

A few things to bear in mind about recruiters:

they almost always work for the hiring company not the candidate; though this does not excuse poor behaviour towards candidates it is part of the cause of your misery.

there are mass producers and there are strategic differentiators; the mass producers just throw a bunch of cookie-cut candidates at the client and hope one is tasty; the differentiators will take time to know the client's business, to understand the job requirements and then make sure that they only put forward the best candidate(s) who they have taken the time to get to know. Both strategies make money but the experience is different.

Finally, some candidates are a giant waste of time; lying about their experience or skills; not returning calls; not turning up for interviews or turning up unprepared - I can imagine this could make a recruiter very cynical after a while. Again, not an excuse but perhaps a source of their pain that then gets reflected in their treatment of others.

Please forgive any spelling or grammatical errors, as I am writing this from my cell.

I have had mixed experiences with recruiters, and believe that there are solid companies and recruiters that are worth fees that the hiring companies pay.

Out of college, as a result of being overly confident and not following my own advice of having options, I spent the entire summer looking for employment. My experience with RH was not a favorable one. It felt like they didn't have my interests in mind as all the interviews I was set up with were not what I was seeking, nor did I feel my skills were being well marketed. When asked about better placement I received the cookie cutter response "well you're a college grad and this is the best you can get."

A month into working with RH, and feeling discouraged, a Recruiter from Ajilon reached out. That experience was fulfilling and successful. My recruiter cold called me, brought me into office for an interview and then to lunch to discuss what I wanted in a career. It was a much more personal experience. Additionally, rather than writing me off as a recent grad he leveraged my internship with a Big 4 firm and leadership in college to get me interviews with two Fortune 500 companies and the biggest privately held company, at the time, which turned into my first post college job.

When the financial crisis hit and it was time to choose between moving to the middle of nowhere or find new employment, my recruiter started setting me up again with quality opportunities and even put me in touch with a college friend that happened to be a Partner at a large regional firm, which wasn't a client. H coached me though all 3 levels of interviews even though there was no financial compensation in it for him.

Ultimately, I ended up taking a different path that has lead me to where I am today.

I still get calls from recruiters, and return their calls and even have gone tp a few interviews. One specifically, last year that the recruiter completely misrepresented and walked in interviewing for a position completely different than I was lead to expect.

Long story short, I think if you find a Recruiter that takes the time to get to know you and works for you as the candidate, as well as the hiring/paying company that person is worth his/her weight in gold to the future of your career.

Wayne:

I feel your pain.

It took me a few years of working with placement agencies and recruiters before I got the picture and started avoiding them. Both for my own employ as well as a hiring manager.

They are sales people and all that entails. Worse, it's direct sales. They talk out of both sides of their mouth at all times tailoring everything they say to their respective audience. They aren't hiring or firing. They don't have a position to offer. They are just brokering between parties and skimming off the top.

As a potential employee or as an employer, one is much better off doing their own due diligence in job placements. The probabilities of a good fit are much higher for all parties.

Recruiters want us t think they have the "magic dust". But they have no special powers.

Tangent:

We've mentioned "networking" here multiple times.

There is sometimes difficulty in doing so. I thought I might throw this out there.

In my industry there are a couple of problems in networking that I've encountered.

First, the industry is large but very cloistered. If I network for a position, everyone will know I'm looking before too long. Including my own boss which is a death knell. Not only for my current position, but she'll poison the well to make sure I don't get another position in the industry.

This is more common than many people seem to think. I've had a CFO I reported to tell the outside, Big 4 audit firm that was trying to recruit me away, that if they took me, they'd no longer be our audit firm.

And yet, he didn't understand why I was lived when I found out that he'd done that. He thought I should be impressed that he thought so highly of my work that he didn't want to lose me! I actually considered suing the audit partner as, he revealed that to my boss when he wasn't involved with the recruitment in the first place. He and I had never discussed it.

Don't ever trust an audit firm!

Second there is competition. Today, in my public sector position, I would be competing in many cases against the same people I network with.

More than once, I've asked someone to be reference for me and had them not respond. Then later, at the marathon, back-to-back interviews that public agencies conduct, I see them showing up for an interview for the same position I am interviewing for. That can be very awkward and result in both parties not interacting any more.

On a broader scale, I've found that employers and recruiters seek every detail on a candidate and obtain it. But, they often aren't particularly guarded about all of that personal info on one's CV. More than once, I've had my job app turned into a sales reference where they start calling me, pretend to have mutual interest in a position at their firm that I've applied and maybe even interviewed for, and then turn it into a sales call. I've had this done by major national banks and insurance companies I applied and interviewed for positions at.

Talk about being angry!

So, what does everyone else say? Is there a job application equivalent of the blind job advertisement?

I avoid grouping everyone in any profession into one category. I have had experience with recruiters who were very helpful in past job searches, even when they themselves had nothing to gain from it (besides goodwill). For example, one recruiter steered me clear of a firm that had multiple positions posted when they had a planned offshoring of the entire function, worked with me on my search, and when I found a position completely unrelated to his firm (i.e. he would not make one nickel either way on the outcome) advised me on where my offer stood vs. market, etc.

My very first job out of public accounting was the result of a recruiter calling me and asking me what my interests were and *not* tossing irrelevant opps at me. He called me back 2-3 months after we spoke and zeroed in on exactly the company / industry of interest to me. I suppose he made a lasting impression.

I'd prefer networking into my next opportunity over using a headhunter but these guys and gals do have a place in the process.

As a final note, I wonder if some of the harsher posters evaluate the salespeople within their own orgs more generously than they evaluate recruiters. Or are they same individuals that call for the axe when their salespeople don't produce.

My guess is that many of these recruiters feel that same blade above their necks or are thinking of their mortgages and that (hopefully) memorable family vacation at the end of the year when they dial us up.

Where have all the days gone when two business individuals can "trust" each other with high levels of integrity, that they can shake on a deal, that is mutually beneficial and each party holds their part of the deal.

Typically a sales person/recruiter (generalizations here) are simply thinking of the next sale (due to the blade above their neck). The minute this happens, the integrity of the trust has been dropped.

Viewpoint from the "candidate" side: Recent experience (within the last 4-5 years) has been largely negative. Past experience (15-30 years prior) was mixed, with some very positive, some less so.
Viewpoint from the "hiring" side: Probably 2/3 of the recruiters that sent me resumes just threw them at me and crossed their fingers, hoping they interpreted the job requirement closely enough. Some did an adequate job, providing resumes of candidates that appeared good, but no stars. One recruiter was a star. He found me MANY people that, while not meeting some of the written requirements, showed that the recruiter heard what I said, understood, and sent me stars. I was THRILLED with who he produced, even MORE thrilled that these people turned out to be great hires, and I feel PROUD to have been a part of their careers. I also love that after more than a dozen years later, MOST of these people are still in the same organization I hired them into, and have been promoted.

Here is the main point...

Unless "recruiters" realize that they serve both sides of the transaction, the candidate experience will never improve. The often quoted "We work for the company paying us" and to some extent, "We are not here to find candidates jobs" should be discarded in recruiter lexicon and perspective.