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All the interviews I got after I was laid off were through recruiters. I did not apply anywhere directly. I found them very helpful. However, you are not the first person to tell me this. It seems recruiters work very well for one kind of applicant and terribly for others.

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There are a few very good recruiters out there, who will have you interviewing for jobs within days, and probably fielding offers within a week or two. There are also vast seas of terrible recruiters who do nothing but keyword matching and spamming your details out to anyone with a pulse, who are at best neutral in your ability to find a job, and in the worst case will actively make things harder for you because companies will be unwilling to cover their fees.

I've never found a good recruiter - how does one go about hunting one of those down?

In my case, via going to meetups related to the field I'm in. There'll be one recruiter who everyone wants to talk to. Talk to them, and make it known that you're looking for work.

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