rb212nyc

Very cool! Will check out.

My point is that if you're at the top of your game in tech, you always have choices. Yes, if you're starting out you'll have less leverage to negotiate no matter what. But even in those circumstances, if you're resolved to walk if things don't move at least a little in your favor, it gives you great strength no matter what. Having options, and competitive offers is always preferable but not a requirement to employ this strategy. As I mention in another answer, treat the negotiation as if you're doing it on behalf of a friend who has given you carte blanch to kill the deal if it doesn't improve. Be dispassionate - the more you get wrapped up and invested in making the deal work, the less leverage and strength you'll present in the negotiation.

As I said in the initial post, you should always be considerate and reasonable, but be firm in what's most important to you.

Good luck!

Having multiple offers is helpful in negotiating from a place of confidence. But what I really mean is that one should not make a negotiation a life or death experience. You're in an in demand field, know that, understand that and even if you have no competitive offers, be willing to walk away from the offer you do have if you're not able to massage it into the kind of shape that would make you feel comfortable working for that company. Be dispassionate in the negotiation. Treat it as if you're negotiating for a friend who could either take or leave the job. The more you get invested in working for this company, the less strength and resolve you'll have in negotiating.

Good luck!

I agree with your point, up to a point...but the hope is that if you use us for this job, you'll use us for the next. Tenure at companies for employees sub 35 is less than 3 years now. And in tech it's even shorter. So we're taking the viewpoint that though the number of deals we may help with per person is lower than it might be in entertainment, it's not limited to just one and done.

All that said...think of this concept a bit like a public defender. We believe that great talent has a right to great representation. If that's only great representation for one negotiation, that's fine. We still aim to provide great service for that one negotiation.

I think this is a very fair point. The way we have dealt with it thus far is to provide guidance behind the scenes if a company doesn't want to speak to us directly. The candidate would stay the face of the process and we would feed them information. That said, when we started 10x, it was unheard of for tech freelancers to have agents. We got some push back. But that changed fairly quickly and we get zero push back now. On the contrary, companies are genuinely happy to have someone like us as an intermediary (on the freelance side). We shall see if the same holds true on the full time side. But good question.

I'm one of the 10x founders. Just wanted to comments here...I won't answer every question but this one felt important to answer. My thoughts are as follows...

There are mitigating factors as it relates to what we are offering and the concerns you raise -- and one misunderstanding.

The misunderstanding first...we are not selling anyone to anything. We have no involvement in finding you the job, we are not recruiters, we are not headhunters. So we have no alignment with anyone other than YOU.

The first mitigating factor is that we offer two different negotiation options. One is us leading the process and speaking directly to your prosepctive employer, the other is us advising you behind the scenes and you talk directly to your prospective employer. In both cases, we are working hand in hand with you so nothing that is being conveyed is something you're not endorsing. Our goal IS to get to a yes, but ONLY a yes that you feel good about. If you don't feel good about it, then the negotiation ends and we move on.

The other thing is that we're offering to provide this service during our beta phase as a pay what you feel it's worth to you. You could choose to pay us nothing...we need to EARN whatever amount you choose to pay us. So we are 100% incentivized to be both ethical and effective during this process. Because if we're not, you're not going to recommend us to others and you're not going to pay us. And honestly, this business will be built and has been built almost exclusively on recommendations and word of mouth so that's a MAJOR incentive to us.

I do agree with you about one thing though, negotiating is NOT about fighting. It's about presenting reasonable and substantiated reasons why certain points should be adjusted. It's about knowing the myriad of areas TO negotiate. It's about understanding the standards and practices across different verticals. And most importantly it's about truly understanding what YOU want out of a deal. Fighting has NO place in this process.

As a concluding comment, agenting is a VERY old profession and widely used in many other verticals. There is a very good reason for this, put simply, most people are not the best at advocating for themselves. But if that doesn't describe you, if you possess all the knowledge required to get you the best deal possible, that's great. No need for our help. Otherwise, let us prove to you why there is a difference. If you don't like it, don't pay us.