>just don't talk to external recruiters.

See, my experience? external recruiters (and body shops/contract to hire gigs) are a great way to get your foot in the door when you don't quite have the skills or experience required, or when there's something else wrong with you that prevents you from being really good.

In general, good people won't take jobs through body shops and external recruiters. Most advice here, including yours is for people who are really good. And if you are really good, that's great advice. ignore external recruiters, body shops, and contract-to-hire positions; You should have no trouble doing way better through your contacts.

But... do you know what this means? this means that departments that hire through body shops and external recruiters tend to get employees who aren't very good. This can be an opportunity, sometimes.

That's the thing. if you're an ordinary run of the mill person and not some industry giant, say, and you're having a hard time because of personal issues, or because you made some poor career choices and need some time to catch up, or because your brain just refuses to work correctly? Deliberately targeting external recruiters and contract-to-hire jobs can be a good way to find a job where you won't be holding the team back; where your mediocre plodding (or where your earnest efforts at recovery) will be enough to make the employer happy, and sometimes even to shine. It will get you six months to a year where you get paid decently and where other people seem to think you are really helpful (which is really important to me.) where you can get yourself together to the point where you can handle a real job again.

I found myself in that situation recently; I was in a pretty bad place mentally, and simply wasn't able to perform up to a level that would be acceptable on the sort of team I'd normally work on. I tried, and someone I knew gave me a work from home gig. I put in, literally like five hours a week. I mean, I'm not going to lie about my hours, but without someone standing right there, i wasn't in a state where I could get much of anything done. (Depression seems... so counterproductive. So I feel shitty, right? but then I don't want to do anything that might make me feel better because I feel shitty. what the fuck, right?)

But yeah. I put my resume on dice, and let external recruiters and body shops call me all day. I interviewed a lot, which was fun; I found that I wasn't a senior devops person, even if I am a senior sysadmin. I eventually landed where I am now, in an environment where, in my degraded state, I was not the best on the team, but I was far from the worst. I had a manager who was cool with me saying "Hey, I'm distracted. Get me back on track" - and yeah, I'm still at the job now. I think my performance is improving with my general mental state; I'm almost six months in, and it was exactly what I needed.

That's the thing. You can't outright say "Uh, hey guys, I'm kinda broken. I need an easy job I can do while I get myself together." - As far as I can tell, the best way to signal that sort of thing? talk to those external recruiters; to those body shops. They'll fix you up with a job that pays slightly more than you'd get full time for the same job, but where standards are dramatically lower.