During the start of my career I searched out tech firms based in my city and made a list of the ones I was interested. Then I followed the vacancies pages on their website and sent speculative emails. Companies seemed to appreciate my more proactive approach and the few times I used recruiters I had bad experiences (they tried to blag me into roles I was not qualified for).

Now I’m more open to linkedin recruiters but it depends on what the company is. I’ll often try to work out what/where the vacancy is from their description so I can circumvent them.