In this climate, does it make sense to find a job placement agency to try to find me a job? I have always been skeptical of head hunters, but it seems to me that they could help find a match between what I want and what's out there. I have a pretty easy timetable since I still have a job, and I was thinking I could just let them find stuff for me. Has anyone ever worked with one of these places, and if so, do they actually work?

First of all, unless the US tech industry is even more unwell than I thought, headhunters are paid by employers, not by jobhunters. Signing up with one or several costs you nothing: there's no downside. Or at least, no financial downside: I did get a lot of spam last time I tried this, as the headhunters themselves aren't terribly technical and so can't immediately size up whether a job they're trying to pitch has any relevance to you or not.

In practice, I've never actually taken a job via a headhunter, but that's only because I always found better jobs each time via friends (hi Hugo).

I guess my other question is... If you were in a similar situation in this economy, would you even bother tempting the fates to look for a better job? Or would you just hang on tightly to what you have until times get better? I absolutely hate where my department is going, and I don't see myself happy if I have to stay here for much longer...

No-one ever leaves a company except six months later than they should have. Would your company "hang on tightly" to you if they thought you were bad for their long-term goals?

I recommend going fishing in the job market. At the very least you'll have the fun of getting your ego boosted by the headhunter, in whose interest it is that you land the highest-paying job possible: I had a headhunter once who, when I told him what I was earning, snorted and said drily, "Well, I think we can do a bit better than that, don't you?"

Of course, some of this only applies if you don't suck. But how much could someone suck who has such great taste in car audio?

Peter