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Philosophical question - if you code in private and never release it, do you care? Is this for personal fun, or are you portfolio building? The problem is usual

by joshvm 6y ago

Philosophical question - if you code in private and never release it, do you care? Is this for personal fun, or are you portfolio building? The problem is usually when you want to assert copyright, not that you can't do side projects at all. Would you care if the company owned the copyright? That's an interesting way around it. I was able to explore some very cool projects at a previous company simply because I enjoyed the job and I had a lot of respect for the business. I would rather they had the IP and could actually do something useful with it. Other ways around it - STEM and outreach, summer-of-code type things? Most companies are happy for employees to do that kind of work. Lots of technical employees write books as well. Else you go the legal route and hope that your project is orthogonal enough that you can get it approved. Or you declare it all on your IP declaration prior to starting, and accept you might need to wait until you leave to start working on it.

shmel 6y ago
in the context of this topic I am talking about evaluating people by github projects, so coding in private defeats the purpose. I can totally understand why companies look at github code. However, if I am looking for a new job, I may want to put something new there so it looks more appealing (now I have bunch of student code). However, it looks like legally I can't. I guess you could call it portfolio building, but I personally don't see my GH as portfolio.
- joshvm 6y ago
  The legal situation is ultimately whatever your company signs off on. If you get approval - which may take some bureaucracy - then you're off the hook. There will be limits on what you can work on, and it might have to be nothing to do with your job. You mention arguing with the legal department, so perhaps it's challenging where you work and I don't want to assume there. However you lose nothing from engaging with them and asking - it's possibly something to ask your line manager about, though obviously don't say you're doing it because you want to look good in the job market! If this is purely within the context of job applications - I would ask, does it actually matter? Any sane hiring manager will understand the constraints that you're under with your current employer. At the end of the day if they refuse to look at your application because you don't have repositories on GitHub (and they don't appeal to reason), then there isn't anything you can do about it. Job requirements are usually flexible and you'll probably find that a reputable company on your CV, a solid cover letter and references goes a long way. Usually you can persuade your way around things like not having an active Github profile. Within the context of doing projects for their own sake (i.e. fun and learning), having this restriction is a trade-off of working at a large organisation. I suggested a number of ways which you could explore that scratches both itches.

by joshvm 6y ago

shmel 6y ago

in the context of this topic I am talking about evaluating people by github projects, so coding in private defeats the purpose. I can totally understand why companies look at github code. However, if I am looking for a new job, I may want to put something new there so it looks more appealing (now I have bunch of student code). However, it looks like legally I can't. I guess you could call it portfolio building, but I personally don't see my GH as portfolio.

joshvm 6y ago
The legal situation is ultimately whatever your company signs off on. If you get approval - which may take some bureaucracy - then you're off the hook. There will be limits on what you can work on, and it might have to be nothing to do with your job. You mention arguing with the legal department, so perhaps it's challenging where you work and I don't want to assume there. However you lose nothing from engaging with them and asking - it's possibly something to ask your line manager about, though obviously don't say you're doing it because you want to look good in the job market! If this is purely within the context of job applications - I would ask, does it actually matter? Any sane hiring manager will understand the constraints that you're under with your current employer. At the end of the day if they refuse to look at your application because you don't have repositories on GitHub (and they don't appeal to reason), then there isn't anything you can do about it. Job requirements are usually flexible and you'll probably find that a reputable company on your CV, a solid cover letter and references goes a long way. Usually you can persuade your way around things like not having an active Github profile. Within the context of doing projects for their own sake (i.e. fun and learning), having this restriction is a trade-off of working at a large organisation. I suggested a number of ways which you could explore that scratches both itches.