I got my start as a recruiter during the dot-com boom. Back then, Java programmers were the most in-demand people in the country. To be the early bird that caught the worm, I had to be in the office by 6:30. That allowed me to get to the handful of new Java programmers that had posted their resumes overnight on Monster.com before the other recruiters, especially those 29 other piranhas in my office. At that point, if you could code in Java and fog a mirror, everyone wanted you. You could have a prison stint in your background and not be able to pass a drug test, EggsByMail.com would still have a riveting career path waiting for you. (It's tough to imagine why that bubble burst.)