re: Any experience using job recruiters/hunters?

I think it is highly dependent on the industry and level you are looking for.

I have used a recruiter to bring me candidates to hire, and I have used a recruiter to find a new job for myself, so I've seen it from both sides.

As a job hunter, I would never pay anyone. But understand what that means. The good recruiters are paid by the companies when a hire is made and usually lasts a certain time. The ones we work with, We pay 25% of the fee at hire date, 50% 3 months in, and 25% after a year. However, if the hire leaves within 6 months for any reason, we get half of our fee back.

The fee is substantial. We only use them on senior and above type hires, and the fee is usually 25 percent of first year salary. On a 60K hire, that's a fee of $15,000.

In the CPA recruiting field, there are a lot of crap headhunters that don't make it a year, and there are a few very, very good ones. These really good ones are always looking for good candidates.