Hey, no problem, for the most part, I'm in a profession of scumbags. You wouldn't believe some of the stories I have of how I've seen people treated (some of which are from people I work with!). So in conclusion, if you can find an honest (or at least close to honest) recruiter, then stick with him/her, since we're rare. :)

Any advice on how to find local recruiters?

There was one thing I never actually tried in the really bad days of 2001-2002...

Sit in a lawn chair at an intersection near a major corporate complex with a cardboard sign that says "Will Code 4 Food".

The point above is that it's their job to find you.

Walk-ins are dependant on being able to find them physically. That means you'll want to find the offices of the recruiters. Here's a method: go to your job board and look at the list of companies hiring for positions you'd want.

The recruiting companies will have one or more of the following things:

1) They will post several jobs a week.
2) The jobs will be at disparate geographic locations.
3) They will not say "no 3rd parties"
4) You probably won't know the names.

Look at the company's websites and you should be able to find if they are agencies. Most will give their locations.

The only truly national chain I know of is RHI Technology, and they generally share their Office space with their Temp agency sister company. So you can probably find them and not cause a stir by barging in.

A walk in to their local offices will probably get you a recruiter to talk to, and even if they don't have entry level positions available, they'll probably give you an honest look at your resume with advice on how to market yourself so that you'll come back to them for contract placement in a few years.

I did a couple of things.

I posted my resume on monster. BOOM they found me. I looked them up, a couple of them were shady, a couple of them were legit. Went with the legit ones.

I also kept purusing through different job postings on monster, and noticed that this one particular company kept posting some stuff, so i checekd their webpage and ended up applying directly onto their website.


PM Me if you want to know specific companies, i get referral credits if you decide to go with one! But of course, it's all up to you =P