I think it boils down to: what are you trying to achieve as a recruiter? For me, it's about stepping outside my boundaries as a single engineer and my curiosity about the greater startup community.
Perhaps these organizations aren't doing their due diligence when selecting a recruiter?
I'm a big believer in public portfolios. When I've been on the hiring side of things that's the first place I look. Now it's just a question of improving the both the quality and quantity of projects you're showing off.
How about getting a mentor to review your project(s)? You're not in an organization yet, but you can pretend you are--request a code review from a programmer you look up to.
Teaching others has helped me learn myself in the past. You didn't mention activity on stack overflow--answering questions there can improve your skills and visibility since SO is integrated with SO Careers as well.
I wrote a longer response here: http://blog.teamgrep.com/2011/11/08/response-to-knyle-style-...
I think it boils down to: what are you trying to achieve as a recruiter? For me, it's about stepping outside my boundaries as a single engineer and my curiosity about the greater startup community.
Perhaps these organizations aren't doing their due diligence when selecting a recruiter?