I also strongly disagree. All the jobs I've taken at the advice of a recruiter were the worst jobs I've ever had. Even if the job matched everything on my checklist and I was able to visit the company and talk to the employees before signing on, it was still a terrible place to work. Why? Because it was in everyone's best interest to hide how miserable the job actually was. And yes, the salary was higer, but the jobs didn't last. The longest I was able to tolerate these jobs was about 2 years each. Which didn't look very good on my resume. Switching jobs every 2 years is probably ok for some, but I wouldn't hire anyone that has a consistent record of that. My advice is to find places that you would want to work and apply there on your own.
