You know... As someone who works in a very hard nice of IT to find talent (Linux systems engineering at an electronic trading firm), I think recruiters aren't always necessary. Once you've been in the industry long enough, you can just reach out to friends and former coworkers. It is similar to using a recruiter, but they tend to cut all of the BS. Granted, I've worked with 1-2 great recruiters, but I've also talked / emailed back and forth with hundreds of marginally competent or fully incompetent ones. Using professional recruiters is necessary at times, but when it isn't it is much less of a pain.