This has happened to me several times, for company names that you most likely have heard of. They don't even bother to tell you ahead of time.
In one case where they told me about it ahead of time, I refused to accept it, and they refused to interview me.
In one case, facing this last-minute NDA, I wrote on it just above my signatures something like "it is understood that nothing confidential and proprietary will be shared with me and so this agreement is effectively void". The receptionist had no issues with it (she didn't even read).
In another case, the NDA was offered on an electronic display with a signature pad (so I could not make any edits). I decided to proceed in that specific case.
These same agreements often say that you'll not disclose anything confidential and proprietary to them. Yet they openly ask those questions. Some often even expect your previous code samples should be publicly available on Github. (I am looking for a chance to ask them if their IP contract allows employees to put their code on Github.)
The root-cause of this problem: It is not the companies or the lawyers, it is the most of us who sign these agreements without reading. The latter tilts the equilibrium for the contracts in the favor of the companies.
In one case where they told me about it ahead of time, I refused to accept it, and they refused to interview me.
In one case, facing this last-minute NDA, I wrote on it just above my signatures something like "it is understood that nothing confidential and proprietary will be shared with me and so this agreement is effectively void". The receptionist had no issues with it (she didn't even read).
In another case, the NDA was offered on an electronic display with a signature pad (so I could not make any edits). I decided to proceed in that specific case.
These same agreements often say that you'll not disclose anything confidential and proprietary to them. Yet they openly ask those questions. Some often even expect your previous code samples should be publicly available on Github. (I am looking for a chance to ask them if their IP contract allows employees to put their code on Github.)
The root-cause of this problem: It is not the companies or the lawyers, it is the most of us who sign these agreements without reading. The latter tilts the equilibrium for the contracts in the favor of the companies.