[fecak]

All of my recruiting work was retained for the last 5-10 years I was in business, and I wasn't recruiting executives. I'm not saying that is the norm (it definitely isn't), and you are correct that senior developers will not be approached for executive roles.

Higher level candidates will probably attract higher level recruiters, because the amount of time to place someone making $100K is the same amount of time to place someone at $500K, with the only difference being a $25K fee for the first person and a $100K fee for the second.

[teakettle42]

> … and a $100K fee for the second.

Or I can place myself and have room to negotiate an additional $100k in my signing bonus.

I don’t network with recruiters. I network with people in my industry that can directly drive hiring decisions.