Personally, I do not make a habit of working with recruiters. This has not always been the case. When I was working in tech back in Seattle, I often found recruiters to be great contacts (small tech companies don't have an HR department) and got most of my jobs and interviews through a recruiter. They are still scumbags, but they are providing a service in the form quality, unlisted, positions.

Since I began teaching overseas (and the process leading up to it), I did not find this to be the case. Not one recruiter brought me a job a) above market value, or b) not also listed on public boards. They are only interested in slam dunks, they have no interest in working to get YOU the best job you can get. I can respect that ambition as I myself am not particularly careerminded, but, when it comes to letting somebody be a lamprey on my money, they need to justify why they are there. The other thing is that your job is to get the "best" job (in however you qualify that for yourself) where you will be happy, and be paid well for it. A recruiter does not have those same goals. They simply want to fill positions that THEY have been hired to fill, at a specific price point.

All told, you are much better off doing all of your own work.