[victoro]

I like the soap opera analogy -- hadn't thought of that. But keep in mind that actors (and other folks that work in long-running shows) will still take other jobs as at the same time as their main gig -- e.g taking a part in a movie in between seasons. That sometimes happens with programming contractors as well, but from what I've seen its far more rare.

Ultimately I agree with the other responder that Hollywood agents are better thought of as deal makers/negotiators than job finders so maybe what limits it from showing up in the software contracting world (and other parts of the film world) is that contract terms are much more standardized so not as much time is needed for negotiation and thus the programmers can do it themselves.

[biztos]

> contract terms are much more standardized

Yeah but I wonder, how much of this is because we (as a group/subculture) are terrible at negotiating and don't have agents helping us with it?

I mean, I have to actually work with the people and do the job, so in addition to being bad at contract negotiation I'm also factoring in a bunch of stuff that's orthogonal to the paycheck. Whereas the agent is negotiating for a number, of which she gets 10%, and short of making enemies that's the only consideration.

[tomcam]

In the US actors in the soaps have agents to handle convention appearances, fan cruises, extracurricular gigs during hiatus, voiceover jobs, plays, etc.