I wouldn't treat it as anything more than a risk assessment, and telling people just implicates them and makes them responsible. As a condition of investment,

I wouldn't treat it as anything more than a risk assessment, and telling people just implicates them and makes them responsible. As a condition of investment, many investors require that companies have blanket IP ownership over their employees brains. If there is value you generate that doesn't go into your job, that's an inefficiency managers would be obligated by their role to optimize out. The good ones would probably rather not know, the worst will using monitoring and surveillance to find out if there is some additional leverage they can use against you. On your way into a job, redline the contract so that any IP ownership clauses are narrowly defined to the domain of the work so that if your fanfic novel or interpretive dance show becomes an international phenomenon, your employer doesn't get an option on the profits. Be in a position to negotiate those contract clauses on your way into a job, which means, don't be unemployed, and always maintain a pipeline of opportunities when you have a job. Regarding the recruiters, you aren't wasting anyone's time, they can only waste their own with unappealing offers, so keep those conversations open. In all the organizations I've been in, the approach to moonlighting was don't ask, don't tell.