My experience from a hiring side is that 3rd party recruiters are not actually looking for someone who is a good fit, but just trying to get anyone into the position. I don't trust the recruiters on LinkedIn since they seem like 3rd parties. I would put a lot more stock in a recruiter reaching out from the actual company.
They never delivered on the salary ranges or type of roles that were mentioned during the initial call. They wasted my time with a round of "feedback" after each actual interview with the different companies.
They generally left a very bad impression, and now I think of them as leeches and avoid them like the plague.
This happened to me once after getting hired by internal referral. The company ended up rescinding my offer to avoid dealing with the recruiter whose email I had responded to long ago. That was the one time I really needed a job - life took some very strange turns after that.
Make a list of different companies you might be interested in, and look for the right recruiters.
For a jobseeker they are good because they often work with multiple companies to match you with a company or pass your resume to another requiter that have jobs with better fit. They can get you pass initial screen where clueless HR would reject yours resume because of spelling error. They often can provide information on hiring process based on experience with previous candidates.
For a small company that cannot afford having a dedicated recruiter, they are an easy way to outsource responsibility of finding people. For a large non-tech company they are better than in house HR because they have basic understanding of the market.
LinkedIn is just recruiter spam for me now. The noise level of people just collecting names arbitrarily (either by design or due to ignorance) is off the charts.
I too would like to talk to a recruiter with specific job(s) in mind and who knows/ works at that company.
It’s pretty easy to distinguish a serious player versus a Bozo.
The “retained” headhunters are usually interesting. These are true hired guns.
Essentially, you’ll want to deal with the individuals who have done their 10,000+ hours in this space.
Have the recruiter prove back their interest in you. Ask them to send a detailed position summary, including the compensation package.
The quality of their written response should tell you everything.