Top Coders Tell Agents, "Show Me the Money!"

theodp writes "So, you're a 10x developer or a 25x programmer, but not getting paid like one? Keep your chin up! BusinessWeek reports that Silicon Valley is going Hollywood and top software developers can now get their very own agent through 10x Management, which bills itself as 'the talent agency for the technology industry.'"

Comments

"Hollywood wages" = Unions.

[femtobyte]

Want "Hollywood" money? How about programmers banding together and insisting on the protections that stop Hollywood management from moving every aspect of production to the cheapest outsourced labor: Unions. Writers, actors, makeup, costume, camera --- they've all got unions, so their jobs aren't competing with $9/hour H1-B labor.

Re:"Hollywood wages" = Unions.

[femtobyte]

Actors, gaffers, electricians, focus pullers, you name it. Do you think the typical Hollywood studio exec pays the folks who man the lights a living wage out of the goodness of his generous heart? Hell, no; they're greedy bastards just like the folks who run every other industry into a race-for-the-bottom cash-grab. Thanks to unions (a large variety of unions supporting each other in solidarity, so the actors don't say "screw cameramen, pay them less and us more"), the whole working class gets enough money to support their families and live with dignity (even in an expensive part of the country). And behold: having the "burden" of all those unions doesn't seem to make Hollywood a terribly unprofitable place, or prevent top talent from earning megabucks, or drive away the industry to some labor-hating hellhole of an anti-union town.

Re:"Hollywood wages" = Unions.

[femtobyte]

Right, because there's no demand for programmers that speak American English natively, or for folks to make American-specific games, American-specific websites, provide software for American unionized companies, so unions are hopeless. It's not like scads of top technology companies all tend to cluster in tight geographic regions, as though there was some benefit to being in particular American locations. Nope, if all the American programmers walked off the job right now on strike, no one in the tech industry would even notice.

Oh, wait, none of the preceding is true --- if American programmers got their act together and pooled resources to fight back against the Zuckerbergs of the world, they could bring the entire US IT industry to a grinding halt, and get basically whatever concessions they asked for.

Now, this might not always be true in the future, so if you don't want to wait until you're really powerless (already entirely replaced by a crew in India), then you'd better start organizing *now* while you've still got a chance.

I was wondering when this was going to happen.

[undeadbill]

15% is a very reasonable cut to do basic business management and cold calling for freelancers. It is much better than what a lot of "recruiters" (aka pimps) take as a cut for their "consulting agencies", which can be as high as 80% of the hourly rate. Even using something like TriNet to handle most of the business stuff still doesn't compare because you still have to either find someone with business contacts or do all the calling yourself on unpaid time (which you then need to charge for later as part of your bill rate, or starve).

I really hope this practice starts putting some downward pressure on the pimps and time wasters who populate the IT recruiting market to start doing better work for a more reasonable rate. Nobody deserves 80% of a developer's pay just because they made a few phone calls. I would definitely consider working for or with a group of freelancers if someone was handling the business side at 15%.

Re:Zuckerberg

[Reality Man]

I see that it's time to accept that technology means not everyone has to work. We create our own social model, we can change it. Why can't we accept a 20 hour work week for the same standard of living? What else is technology good for if not to help us?

Can we just have unions already?

[rsilvergun]

seriously. Can we? You're not a star. You're not special. You're a cog, and you will be replaced by an Indian or Malaysian or some other *-ian that makes less than you do because they don't have indoor plumbing and clean air/water.

If you want a good life you need to start protecting it. That means Unions + a strong Federal Gov't (states are too weak to stand up to corps).

Re:Follow the money

[Anonymous Brave Guy]

...do what I did, go where the money is.

I would, but I'm not sure I could ever make enough working in the financial markets to buy back my soul...

The Myth of the Golden Child

[Required Snark]

I'm sure this will catch on, but my cynical self knows it's almost complete bullshit.

It's a case of the Golden Child vs. the Goat. I've seen this stupidity in action for decades.

Take two coders of roughly the same skill. One has flash and a high reputation, the other is plain spoken and just says what works and what doesn't. Management gives them both a task that has an unexpected issue and delivery is delayed. When the Golden Child has trouble management goes "that was much harder then we thought, lucky we had our ace working on it, or things would have have been much worse." When The Goat is late it's "so-and-so is just average, it's not a surprise they can't get the job done in time."

Now add in the cost and visibility of the 10x or 25x parachute in super coder who is so extra special they have an agent!!! No matter what happen management is going to conclude that they made a good investment in the high priced person. If they say otherwise then it would reflect badly on them. Any internal dissent by existing staff will be seen as sour grapes/incompetence. If there is a failure it will be laid at the feet of anyone but the Golden Child. No manager is ever going to admit they made that kind of mistake.

I wish I had understood this better earlier in my career. I could be sitting on my yacht right now if I had understood how much you can get for the right kind of hype.