Robin Hanson covered this a few weeks ago. I fact, it's probably worth having an agent _just_ to negotiate your salary given that a 10% increase is not out of the realm of normal negotiations. Not to mention all the other effects of having an agent like signaling, networking, having someone to guide you through career development, etc. this is an industry ripe for creation, but I don't know how to go about doing it: you'd have to start with a bunch of smart developers, and the ideal way to do that seems to be for me to become a top recognized developer, and then transition into starting an agency once I've developed the reputation... Anyone have a good history of how agencies began in Hollywood?
I personally love the idea, But the core problem is that there needs to be a very strong level of differentiation between candidates identifiable. And this seems to be much more complicated with non-visual/de-personalized things such as code. I could see this working much better with design, but still even there things can get very replaceable.
Does anybody know how recruiting works in the upper end of C-level recruiting (i.e. Top500s)? I suspect that contract negotiations here are more similar to the movie industry i.e. - lawyers talking lawyers - after some screening process of the candidates etc.
Many times retained search occurs (up-front payments) for C level recruiting, E.G. ~33% up-front, ~33% for candidate identification / interviews, ~33% on hire. Or 50% retained fee up-front, and 50% on-hire. C-level recruiting (from my chats with a few "executive recruiters" in the past, no personal experience) tend to be highly network / old-boy based (of course), and is a completely different industry then "recruiting" as most know it.
Retained search does occur for specialized firms, typically >$100,000 salaries in roles such as hedge fund analysts / developers, Sr Director's of large scale companies (MS for example) and the like.
Hopefully an actual Exec recruiter at the C level (so different then Sr VP / Director) will chime in, but they are probably out doing dinners and golfing with potential candidates and clientele in megacorps.
Ok, on your next contract I will negotiate your salary and conditions and aim to get you 10% on your last contract.
Of course I will need a plausible "walk away" option - are you willing to give that?
Edit: it's a bit early in the morning so that was supposed to be an expanation why you might not choose to give ana age t the negotiation power they need.
Honestly, anyone who is competent at their job should say yes to that bargain.
It takes a long time to find work, and having someone else do it for you, as well as negotiate a higher salary, would be completely worth losing out on even 30-40% of the work you might otherwise have gotten.
Sure. I'm currently a PhD student and I love it. So any offer is by definition over and above what I _really_ want to do with my life, which is research. However, I can still be bought for ridiculous amounts of money. If you can negotiate that, then you deserve your 10%. If you drive away employers with your negotiations, I'm still happy.
I'm not claiming to be a superstar, but superstars are usually in the same position: They are already in a job they love and are successful at. So negotiating a better gig for them always includes the option of credibly walking away.
Of course, the question then comes back: why are you a decent agent, and why should I let you represent me?
I think the first agents did not do it that way round :-)
Can you tell me more about differential privacy - if the London Underground releases data about journeys from my start point to my end point, surely at some point enough data is released to determine which anonymous ID is me.
I just would like to know are there determined upper and lower bounds on how much can be released before it is explotable?
http://www.overcomingbias.com/2012/08/why-not-agents-for-all...