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10x Management does this. They have represented me and a few hundred other software/technology professionals for a while now. I have heard about other agents wi

10x Management does this. They have represented me and a few hundred other software/technology professionals for a while now. I have heard about other agents with a similar business model but I can’t name them offhand. See the 2013 article in The New Yorker that describes the 10X Management model. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/11/24/programmers-price https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/11/24/programmers-pr... Also written up in many other places. The founders frequently show up on Bloomberg News. Pre-10X I worked with a few skilled recruiters who acted more like agents (working on my behalf) than the majority of recruiters. They’re out there but hard to find; a lot of tech recruiters don’t take the time to understand the jobs or candidates and make a good match, but some do.

biztos 5y ago
Thanks, that's one example for sure, hope they are still doing it. Before posting this I read a previous HN article about 10x and their "negotiation as a service" offering, and in that thread it seemed like indeed they were in the agent business, but hard to get as your agent. Which makes sense of course if they're good at it. But again I wonder -- if the business model is good, why don't we see more of it? Could it be that the people who make good agents are making better money doing something else, on average?
- gregjor 5y ago
  Yes, they are still doing it. You can visit their web site 10xmanagement.com to see for yourself. They still represent me. The same founders have a parallel company 10X Ascend built specifically around negotiating for full-time jobs, not the same as the full agent model. I don’t really know how hard it is to get taken on by 10X. The process wasn’t particularly hard for me (in 2013). I know they have a fairly long backlog of applications. I know they prefer people with significant experience and specialized or in-demand skills who already know how to work independently with customers. Agents will of course specialize in fields they understand, and an agent can only credibly represent a small number of clients. I imagine the agent model doesn’t scale as easily as recruitment or “body shop” consulting companies, because it’s more personal and tailored than a numbers game. Like I wrote I have heard of other agents in the software field, but I only have direct experience with 10X Management. I found out about them from a magazine article.

biztos 5y ago

Thanks, that's one example for sure, hope they are still doing it. Before posting this I read a previous HN article about 10x and their "negotiation as a service" offering, and in that thread it seemed like indeed they were in the agent business, but hard to get as your agent. Which makes sense of course if they're good at it. But again I wonder -- if the business model is good, why don't we see more of it? Could it be that the people who make good agents are making better money doing something else, on average?

gregjor 5y ago
Yes, they are still doing it. You can visit their web site 10xmanagement.com to see for yourself. They still represent me. The same founders have a parallel company 10X Ascend built specifically around negotiating for full-time jobs, not the same as the full agent model. I don’t really know how hard it is to get taken on by 10X. The process wasn’t particularly hard for me (in 2013). I know they have a fairly long backlog of applications. I know they prefer people with significant experience and specialized or in-demand skills who already know how to work independently with customers. Agents will of course specialize in fields they understand, and an agent can only credibly represent a small number of clients. I imagine the agent model doesn’t scale as easily as recruitment or “body shop” consulting companies, because it’s more personal and tailored than a numbers game. Like I wrote I have heard of other agents in the software field, but I only have direct experience with 10X Management. I found out about them from a magazine article.