One of the things I miss about academia is the ability to do whatever the hell I wanted too outside of work. This allowed me take on some fairly lucrative consu

One of the things I miss about academia is the ability to do whatever the hell I wanted too outside of work. This allowed me take on some fairly lucrative consulting jobs during the course of my PhD. Although I haven't looked too hard, it seems to me that once you get into industry it is very difficult to work on anything on the side without having to worry about things like IP restrictions. I think in California it is illegal for companies to try and restrict you from doing extra work outside contract hours, but from what I gather it is hard to find companies anywhere else that will agree to such a thing (well at least here in the UK). Actually it is one of my pet theories that this law is a significant contributing factor to the number of companies started in Silicon Valley. I'd be interested in hearing about any experiences people have had in avoiding such restrictions on after hours work, especially in the UK.