Allegra – I wish I had better advice, but my general opinion of recruiters is not positive. They used to cold call me a lot, and not knowing any better, I would call them back thinking they were calling out of the goodness of their heart. In actuality, they were just pulling my resume off of Monster.com or wherever else I posted it (this was 6-8 years ago). Nowadays, I wouldn't put my resume out there like that. It seems to attract the bottom of the barrel of the headhunter world. My experience was a lot like yours – they kept trying to convince me to take interviews for jobs I had no interest in.
So, I'm not sure there are a lot of “decent” recruiters out there. I think most of them are just looking out for themselves. I got pretty lucky in hindsight. Not only was my recruiter one of the good guys, but he was actively working with CPA firms to fill positions. He didn't cold call me or even know I existed. I actually reached out to him after finding his firm online. I emailed him and told him about my background, told him I passed the CPA, and told him that I wanted to transition to public accounting. I asked him if he thought it was realistic, and if he wouldn't mind meeting. That's how it all started, at least.
All I can really recommend is, stick to recruiters that specialize in accounting & finance positions. Look around online – any respectable firm should have a website. A lot of them will have job openings posted on their website. Reach out to several recruiters – email is fine to start. Consider creating a “burner” email account so that they won't have your personal email account. That way once you've found a job, you can delete the account or just ignore it. Any decent recruiter should acknowledge your email, at the very least. Tell them about yourself, make sure they know you've passed the CPA exam, because it really does make a difference. If you know specifically what you want to do (or don't want to do), tell them that in your e-mail. I made it clear to my guy that I was only interested in public accounting, and he never tried to steer me elsewhere.
There are some good ones out there – all I was looking for in one, was someone who listens well and doesn't BS – I told the guy that if my expectations weren't realistic, he should tell me so. He leveled with me, said it isn't easy to transition from private industry to public accounting – but the fact that I passed the CPA exam sold him that I was serious about it. Without a CPA, he probably wouldn't have met with me. So you're on the right track.
One other thing I'd say is, a good recruiter should expect you to have some sort of idea what you want to do. Before my recruiter even offered to introduce me to his clients, he grilled me like any potential employer would – “what do you want to do? why? what are your expectations? tell me about your background…” – that showed me that he isn't interested in people that are just looking for a job. (Even if you don't know what you want to do, come up with something articulate to say). Approach a phone call or meeting with a recruiter like you would an actual job interview.
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