I've worked in places where industrial espionage was prevalent to a degree that necessitated routine social engineering resistance training.

And serious OP/PHYS-SEC. I've literally witnessed entire "recruitment offices" set up and pulled down over night, staffed with actor aspirants hired to pump prospective employees for information about their current work. It's nasty out there.

There's good reasons why, when people ask me 'what I do', I answer 'stuff with computers' and nothing else.

If I lost my job in IT now I legitimately would rather retrain to become a plumber. Less shit to deal with than going through recruitment.

the only work I've had in the last 3 years came from people I directly knew. And before that it was 95% people I knew. The 'recruiters' on linkedin and glassdoor have never produced actual income and I view it all as a waste of time and energy every time. I wish it were different really!

if i go back to 2001, I did get ONE that was worth the time but that's it. and predates linkedin and glassdoor by decades.