God complex of executive recruiters

So, I have been working with exec recruiters in the Valley to land a VP/Director type job in SF startups. Seems like most of this recruitment happens thru' exec recruiters, who act as brokers between founders (mostly hackers with little management background) and candidates. Seems like in the name of "coaching" the founders, a lot of BS goes on.

Exec recruiters focus on how many direct reports the candidate has managed. As a guy who has managed ~50 engineers, the number doesn't matter (except in big company political disputes). The key issue that is relevant is if a candidate has managed managers ('cos thats when people learn how to delegate).

Recruiters don't really care about the candidate's tech chops. To be fair, they are not capable of evaluating people from that angle. "Code talks" and if a VP Engg can't code, don't think the company can succeed. Knowing scrum process is good, but process is not the output of a company (product is).

Recruiters also represent multiple clients at the same time, so there is an incentive mismatch. The focus is on maximizing commission, not getting the founders to talk to the right candidates.

Seems like the exec recruiting business is stuck in the country club mindset and outdated notions. Wish AngelList does a better job w/ handling exec positions.

I m using a temp HN a/c, since I am in the middle of interviewing & dont want to offend anyone.