Re: I may have told this one before...
I have come across this in a variety of fields, recruiters and HR types seem to only appreciate the skills and attitude of fellow HRs, they often view independence of thought and action as positively dangerous.
One of my references has the line "while Mark does not always follow the letter of the rules, he always obeys the spirit of them". Without fail, recruiters HATE it, and want me to use another referee. Almost without fail, hiring managers quote me that line as why they decided to hire me.
In a similar vein, I've known several managers who get HR to sort the resumes for a job application, and then select candidates from the reject pile :)