As someone who moved back to the Bay Area recently, I spent a lot of time applying online, I mostly went out my way to avoid 3rd party recruiters as I'm grown sick of dealing with them. I wasn't out here to go in person like you are suggesting but I found that being persistent, going to company websites directly and applying was lining me up a steady stream of phone interviews. From there, its a matter of getting their interest and then they may pay for you to come out (the company that hired me covered my air fare). If you go the 3rd party recruiter route, you are most likely going to be spending a lot of time talking on the phone to these people having "fluff" conversations as they really don't know anything about programming and they are just grasping at straws trying to place you somewhere to get a commission. If you can find one that seems decent, then go with them, however be prepared to have to filter out some of these recruiters as many may be a complete waste of your time.
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As someone who moved back to the Bay Area recently, I spent a lot of time applying online, I mostly went out my way to avoid 3rd party recruiters as I'm grown sick of dealing with them. I wasn't out here to go in person like you are suggesting but I found that being persistent, going to company websites directly and applying was lining me up a steady stream of phone interviews. From there, its a matter of getting their interest and then they may pay for you to come out (the company that hired me covered my air fare). If you go the 3rd party recruiter route, you are most likely going to be spending a lot of time talking on the phone to these people having "fluff" conversations as they really don't know anything about programming and they are just grasping at straws trying to place you somewhere to get a commission. If you can find one that seems decent, then go with them, however be prepared to have to filter out some of these recruiters as many may be a complete waste of your time.