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Anybody have experience with Hackruiter or TopProspect as alternatives?

Never heard of them, actually.

But the recruiter space doesn't seem to need disruption, since it fundamentally only makes sense in a pre internet age. Today candidates can find any company they like online and apply right then and there. The same goes for any company which can contact a candidate directly (either through a his/her blog if the prospect has one or through any of a number of aggregator services).

Today recruiters are like travel agents -- mostly useless, except if you don't have the time to look stuff up yourself.

I interviewed for a job as a recruiter once (what can i say, I was desperate). Anyway, during the interview, the recruiter told me that they get hired so that the company can select specific kinds of candidates (national, football player etc). In essence, recruiters can allow companies to discriminate against minorities or whatever without having legal problems. This probably doesn't apply in the tech field but it may be why big companies still use them.

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