[Porsche-O-Phile]

I've had several unsolicited calls (an automatic "first strike") from employment recruiters/headhunters who I'm guessing have come across my resume online and are looking to rope me in as a potential referral. In the past, I've never even given these people the time of day - either as a job seeker or as an employer. My experience is that they're basically professional time-wasters that are out fishing for easy commissions. The downside from an employer point of view is that you could get stuck with someone who's a poor match for the position, end up having to can them (lots of time, effort, $$$, etc.) and then you're right back where you started. Also these guys tend to not know very much about the specifics of my profession, yet they pretend to.

That said, a couple of the individuals that have called do claim to be specifically tailored to the field of architecture/design/construction and as such, I'm wondering if I should bother returning their calls. My gut instinct says "don't waste your time - you can do more and get better results on your own" but I don't want to exclude them if they might potentially be of some benefit in a particularly tough market right now.

Any thoughts/insights?