
Ask HN: Is there something akin to “agents”  in the software industry? - lsc
As a writer or an actor, my understanding is that you usually hire an agent who negotiates on your behalf, and you give them some percentage of what you make.<p>All of the job placement middlemen I&#x27;ve seen on the IT side of things are paid by my counterparty, and thus work against me when it comes time to negotiate.<p>From what I&#x27;ve seen, the difference between negotiating well and negotiating poorly is often quite large.<p>Does something like this exist for people in the &quot;almost $200K&#x2F;yr total compensation&quot; range?    Should something like this exist?   What are the barriers to creating something like this?
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mindcrime
There have been attempts to create something like this, yes. I don't know how
successful they've been however. See:

[http://www.bloomberg.com/bw/articles/2013-04-10/silicon-
vall...](http://www.bloomberg.com/bw/articles/2013-04-10/silicon-valley-goes-
hollywood-top-coders-can-now-get-agents)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5400055](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5400055)

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lsc
It is unclear to me who pays this agency, and "how much" is more unclear. I
think that if I am your customer, it needs to be transparent to me... e.g. I
know how much the end company is paying, I know how much my negotiator is
taking, etc, etc.

Actually, that might be the closest we'll get to my idea; just start an agency
that gets on the "preferred vendor lists" the usual way, then be transparent
with the worker you are placing on what the fees are.

