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I wish developers could make use of agents

I really wish that as a developer, I could make an agent work for me.  No, I’m not talking about the little talking parrots that tell you when you have new e-mail or when an appointment is forthcoming. 

 

Being in the media biz, I deal all the time with people who are lucky enough to belong to an industry where people can be contracted out and make use of human beings whose entire job is to find them work and negotiate great contracts.  Obviously, the same applies for those in the motion picture, radio, sports and entertainment industries. 

 

The people themselves get paid just for their talents, and not their bargaining skills.  So they can concentrate on their core crafts and let someone else hammer out the gory details.  All they have to sacrifice is 7% (give or take a few points in some cases) of their earnings to the very person who got them the work in the first place.

 

Sounds like a deal to me.

 

Shouldn’t we as information technology professionals be privy to avail of such resources?  I think it really sucks that we have to be talented workers that have to be relegated to having to shop ourselves around and banging out contractual details, too.

Posted: Jan 01 2004, 11:50 AM by guam-aspdev | with 6 comment(s)
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Comments

Scott said:

Dude, you can!!

http://xenia.media.mit.edu/~mt/thesis/mt-thesis-3.4.html
# December 31, 2003 9:26 PM

G. Andrew Duthie said:

Jason,

I use an agent for my book projects. It costs me a bit more than 7%, but I've never regretted it, as my agent is very good at negotiating contracts. Of course, given the current state of the technical book market, that's not saying a whole lot at the moment, but my agent has definitely paid for himself in negotiations, as well as in being the go-between when you have something I'd sooner pass off to him to deal with.

That said, I do wish I could use him for contracting stuff as well, but while he's got great connections in publishing, contracting's not his thing. There are, of course, contract placement agencies, but their cut tends to be bigger, often with less personal attention than you get in a one-on-one agent relationship.
# December 31, 2003 11:41 PM

Phil Weber said:

Check these out:
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1106-981121.html
http://www.talentlab.com/media/media/0002101.htm
# January 1, 2004 12:48 AM

Jason Salas said:

Hi Phil,

Thanks for the links. I remember hearing about the Carerra Agency, but I don't know how well they did. They're out of San Diego, if memory serves, and they contacted me when I was looking for a change of career about 1.5 years ago. Now that I think about it, when they first started out (about the time of the ZDNet article, circa Jan. '03), they only sourced talent for a set number of firms. They kinda bridged the gap between talent agent and corporate headhunter.

I wonder what they're up to now...
# January 1, 2004 12:52 AM

Jason Salas said:

Hi Andrew,

Good thoughts. I've always done the publishing thing solo, although it's got its ups-and-downs. I get more in the aggregate, but I've also been screwed on a couple of occasions. Thanks for sharing.
# January 1, 2004 12:55 AM

Wallym said:

Jason,

These "agents" are called staffing companies. They squeeze for a lot more than 7%.

The problem is that the majority of developers and programmers don't know how do the basics of running a business and get run over by the people that do.

Wally
# January 1, 2004 5:22 PM
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