5 ms·

Are you sure you didn't sign any NDA, preventing you from working on ideas you might get during interview? Google used to have pretty water-tight policy on outf

by bitL 7y ago

Are you sure you didn't sign any NDA, preventing you from working on ideas you might get during interview? Google used to have pretty water-tight policy on outflow of ideas (but inflow was encouraged) during interviews.

candu 7y ago
(Usual disclaimer: IANAL, just a person who's worked / consulted several places and signed several NDAs in his life.) Here's the thing: the NDA you sign when you go onsite covers the company's intellectual property. It might cover the interview questions they ask you, but if they're not paying you for the work you do as part of a take-home interview question, and if you're doing it on your own hardware - it's not theirs, it's yours, and they have absolutely no say in what you do with that work afterwards. Moreover: if you are subsequently hired by the company, they still don't own the work you did on your own time and hardware. (However: if you continue to work on it while employed by them, they might then own that follow-up work. Check your employment contract carefully, and if you're in a position to insist that employers do not own your off-hours work, insist away.) Now, if you're currently at another company, and you complete the interview task on their hardware, and especially if you make the mistake of doing that work during company work hours...well, your current employer might then own your interview work. This is a matter usually covered by your employment contract (and another excellent reason to read those carefully).
saagarjha 7y ago
Does Google make you sign an NDA before you interview?!
- amdavidson 7y ago
  We make our candidates sign an NDA before an on-site interview, but do so because of the risk that they see/hear some of our internal information during the interview process not to entrap their ideas.
- joshvm 7y ago
  Implicitly, when you print your visitor badge you consent to the NDA. Though that may be a generic site NDA, not an interview one. I never had to provide an actual signature, aside from a verbal agreement with the recruiter to not share interview questions.
RickS 7y ago
They have nothing of the sort, as of last year. The ask politely that you not share the specific design prompts or your solutions, so that future candidates can't copy you, but they're all over medium anyway. There are no legal teeth behind the request. This applies to the design prompt specifically, which is an early-stage take-home thing. I don't recall whether google had an NDA for the onsite interview portion itself, but I think their badge signin thing might have one baked in, and other companies of equivalent size had paper NDAs as part of checkin. Presumably they only care about you stealing the cool stuff you hear about, and you wouldn't be in danger for running with their (intentionally generic) interview prompts on your own.
yitchelle 7y ago
An interesting aside is if the NDA is bidirectional? In most interviews, the candidate would discuss their past experiences and past projects, which could contain sensitive information via unintentional leaking. Perhaps even a side project that the candidate is working could be covered with NDA. Thoughts?
- gowld 7y ago
  https://patentpandas.org/stories/company-patented-my-idea https://patentpandas.org/stories/company-patented-my-idea Company Tried to Patent My Work After a Job Interview

by bitL 7y ago

candu 7y ago

(Usual disclaimer: IANAL, just a person who's worked / consulted several places and signed several NDAs in his life.) Here's the thing: the NDA you sign when you go onsite covers the company's intellectual property. It might cover the interview questions they ask you, but if they're not paying you for the work you do as part of a take-home interview question, and if you're doing it on your own hardware - it's not theirs, it's yours, and they have absolutely no say in what you do with that work afterwards. Moreover: if you are subsequently hired by the company, they still don't own the work you did on your own time and hardware. (However: if you continue to work on it while employed by them, they might then own that follow-up work. Check your employment contract carefully, and if you're in a position to insist that employers do not own your off-hours work, insist away.) Now, if you're currently at another company, and you complete the interview task on their hardware, and especially if you make the mistake of doing that work during company work hours...well, your current employer might then own your interview work. This is a matter usually covered by your employment contract (and another excellent reason to read those carefully).

saagarjha 7y ago

Does Google make you sign an NDA before you interview?!

amdavidson 7y ago
We make our candidates sign an NDA before an on-site interview, but do so because of the risk that they see/hear some of our internal information during the interview process not to entrap their ideas.
joshvm 7y ago
Implicitly, when you print your visitor badge you consent to the NDA. Though that may be a generic site NDA, not an interview one. I never had to provide an actual signature, aside from a verbal agreement with the recruiter to not share interview questions.

RickS 7y ago

They have nothing of the sort, as of last year. The ask politely that you not share the specific design prompts or your solutions, so that future candidates can't copy you, but they're all over medium anyway. There are no legal teeth behind the request. This applies to the design prompt specifically, which is an early-stage take-home thing. I don't recall whether google had an NDA for the onsite interview portion itself, but I think their badge signin thing might have one baked in, and other companies of equivalent size had paper NDAs as part of checkin. Presumably they only care about you stealing the cool stuff you hear about, and you wouldn't be in danger for running with their (intentionally generic) interview prompts on your own.

yitchelle 7y ago

An interesting aside is if the NDA is bidirectional? In most interviews, the candidate would discuss their past experiences and past projects, which could contain sensitive information via unintentional leaking. Perhaps even a side project that the candidate is working could be covered with NDA. Thoughts?

gowld 7y ago
https://patentpandas.org/stories/company-patented-my-idea https://patentpandas.org/stories/company-patented-my-idea Company Tried to Patent My Work After a Job Interview