

Interviewing for j-o-b: when to ask about "we own you" non-competes? - auctiontheory

I'm thinking of getting a day j-o-b while continuing to work on my startup on my own time.<p>I believe that some companies (like Google) write extremely restrictive employment agreements that basically say "we own everything you do while you are our employee." That wouldn't be a good match. Some others are more permissive: "just don't compete directly with us."<p>When is the proper time in the interview process to bring this up? In my hazy recollection of past jobs, this paperwork was offered to me only when I was about to sign my offer, which is rather late in the process.
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andymoe
It does not really matter but alway always get your attorney to read them.
Also some companies pull BS where they give you the offer on a Friday with an
expiration date of like four calendar days. That's BS. Email back immediately
and tell them your attorney needs time to look things over and can they please
update the expiration date.

You could also ask about their process for contributing to open source
projects or personal projects. That's a pretty good bell weather.

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bavcyc
Certain state have laws which state that anything your create on your own time
with your own equipment is yours regardless. I think CA is one of those
states, but I have not researched this lately.

Never use company resources to do any of your personal work or personal
communication.

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bavcyc
[http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/cgi-
bin/displaycode?section=lab...](http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/cgi-
bin/displaycode?section=lab&group=02001-03000&file=2870-2872j)

and

have more information

