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I have been looking for something like that but I couldn't find anything.
Below are details of what I am looking for and what I have tried so far.

This question is not a duplicate of Finding talent agents for software developers - see below.

Problem

This is the situation I'm in right now:

  • I get a lot of job offers on LinkedIn, Stack Overflow, Twitter and by email.
  • I don't have time to read all of them, not to mention responding.
  • Most don't quote rates so I immediately disregard them as too time consuming to evaluate.
  • I probably miss a lot of good opportunities that way.

Wanted solution

I would like to have someone who:

  • Reads all the offers I get.
  • Responds to all of them to see if they are a good fit.
  • Negotiates good terms.
  • Gets a commission for all my future earnings.
  • Has a financial incentive to renegotiate and get better jobs for me.
  • Represents me in all negotiations.

Nice to have

  • Invoicing and other paperwork.
  • Tracking of my calendar to start new project after old ones end.
  • Terminating old contracts if there are new ones on better terms.
  • Legal advice.

Non-goals

I am specifically not interested in:

  • Looking for clients for me.
  • An agency that has clients and hires me to do the job.
  • Any solution where it is a secret how much the client is paying.
  • Any solution that is just for freelance contracting (I have some offers for full-time jobs in big corpo who offer real employment contracts and those should not be out of scope)

What I found so far

So far I found services like:

  • Toptal
  • CodementorX
  • Upwork
  • X-Team
  • Gun.io
  • 10x Management

All of those services looking at their website advertise as a place to hire good developers. This is not what I want. I am looking for services whose only clients are developers.

Looking at other online resources I found:

with quotes like:

  • "Great programmers don't need talent agents"
  • "Agents make sense when it’s hard to find a job"
  • "Ultimately, there's really nothing like leveraging your own network."

So I think it's important to stress out that it's not about agents to find a job for someone who doesn't have a job or cannot find a job, but to handle the situation of too many job offers to handle and evaluate, and that indeed I would like to leverage my own network but the problem is that I don't have time to discuss all of the offers that I get from my network.

The 10x Management seemed closest to that so far when I read all the news about them in Network World, Valleywag, VentureBeat, The New Yorker, Bloomberg and an impressive number of other places, but their website starts with:

"HIRE THE BEST ON-DEMAND TECH TALENT
We've vetted the greatest freelance
tech talent, so you don’t have to."

All of it is directed to clients looking for talent, with only a small "Become A 10xer" button at the end and it seems that their main focus is on finding clients for their developers instead of representing their clients in negotiations with potential employers and going through job offers that the developers already have. I may be wrong about it but this is the impression I got so far.

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  • 3
    It sounds to me as though you ere need to hire an assistant, not an agent.
    – Scott
    Jun 6, 2019 at 18:05
  • 1
    @Scott It came to my mind but it is very hard to find an assistant with superb negotiation skills.
    – rsp
    Jun 7, 2019 at 16:00
  • Well, searching for an assistant with a strong sales background may be beneficial.
    – Scott
    Jun 7, 2019 at 18:04
  • 1
    @rsp You won't be able to afford an assistant with superb negotiation skills :)
    – Laconic Droid
    Jun 8, 2019 at 13:41

1 Answer 1

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I'm quite sure the solution has been right in front of you the whole time - what you need, based on your specifications (such as being able to determine whether by YOUR estimation and for YOUR purposes, any given proposal they "Read" would be a good deal in light of your circumstances and business model - and the ability to negotiate terms that would be favorable to you, and solicit new business for you...

What you need is a Virtual (or in-house) assistant, but based on the high degree of specificity and the fact that it requires knowledge of you and your preferences more than anything, your best fit would be a long term/permanent one, but you would definitely have to invest the time to train them and let them learn how you expect things to be done - it's an investment that (with the right VA) will pay off tremendously, but if you don't invest that time in getting them acquainted with you and your business, it can't work.

In a nutshell, it hinges on your willingness to take the time to train someone thoroughly (more than a day or three) and you having the patience to see that process through. If can do that, then a VA that you train to do those things is your best possible solution

And you cand find those at any of the above sites lol I work on Upwork and Guru. Freelancer is full of very low-quality freelancers - same with Fiverr. No real experience with People Per Hour. I got accepted by their platform, but their user interface (all the pop-ups and sliders) felt really cheap and spammy..IDK

I have no basis for direct comment on Toptal either, honestly I never bothered to pursue them, as they come accross quite "gimmicky" to me... as if what you're really doing is paying 10x as much for the same thing with an elite label while someone kisses your rear end throughout the process - maybe my perception was a bit jaded that day lol.

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