I’ve spoken with a lot of data science candidates over the years and they all make a common mistake - they give way too much credit to the recruiters that call them about jobs.
With all of my experience as a hiring manager - and I’ve hired a lot of data scientists over the years - I can tell you that recruiters are nowhere near as important as you think they are. Honestly - I viewed recruiters as my secretary.
Recruiters were really only there to keep me within HR policy and my local hiring laws. That’s it.