# Are there any reputable companies working as agents for IT professionals?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-reputable-companies-working-as-agents-for-it-professionals/840891>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [September 27, 2019, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-reputable-companies-working-as-agents-for-it-professionals/840891 "2019-09-27T04:08:20Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![wolfman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/a8b319/32.png) [@wolfman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfman)\
**Post date:** [September 27, 2019, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-reputable-companies-working-as-agents-for-it-professionals/840891/1 "2019-09-27T04:08:20Z")

</div>

Is that a reasonable thing ? I am too damn tired of being at the mercy of some lying ass recruiter because the “good” jobs go through “channels”. I would love to find someone who will work for me, for my benefit, and I am quite reasonably willing to pay for good service, But I am not going to be scammed. Is there a place that will be a reasonable agent for someone with 20+ years IT expertise?

( I said reasonable a lot, I notice)

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Omar\_Little](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omar_little/32/269_2.png) [@Omar\_Little](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omar_Little)\
**Post date:** [September 28, 2019, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-reputable-companies-working-as-agents-for-it-professionals/840891/2 "2019-09-28T01:09:38Z")

</div>

> **[IT Employment Agencies](https://jobstars.com/it-employment-agencies/)**
>
> List of IT Employment Agencies (Staffing & Recruiting Firms)
> The following IT Employment Agencies are always looking to hear from qualified professionals in IT.
> 
> These agencies place candidates into temp, contract, and full-time roles across all...

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\
**Post date:** [September 28, 2019, 11:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-reputable-companies-working-as-agents-for-it-professionals/840891/3 "2019-09-28T11:41:12Z")

</div>

Are you referring to something similar to the entertainment industry where you pay someone a percentage of your earnings to actively find you roles and negotiate on your behalf? I think that’s pretty rare for IT, if it exists at all.

First of all, recruiters tend to get paid by the hiring company, not the candidate.

Secondly, I don’t think the “good” jobs go through recruiters. I think it depends. A lot of garbage jobs go through recruiters. But then there are also a lot of high level jobs that require specialty executive searches. At a certain level, some people get recruited because people know who they are. Like if you are a product manager for Google or chief data scientist at Amazon.

Finally, IT is a lot more of a commodity job than many people in IT would like to believe. More of a key grip than a leading role.  
Bottom line is, no one is going to do your job search for you.