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I would not discount working on a side project alongside your day job. I think the absolute greatest benefit of this is that if your project doesn't work the o

I would not discount working on a side project alongside your day job. I think the absolute greatest benefit of this is that if your project doesn't work the only thing you have lost is some of your time and effort. I know people who had "idea" and they decided they have some money saved so they will quit their day job. And in most cases it just doesn't work. One friend ended up getting divorced and then re-hired and with debt for the rest of his life. It is important to remember that most ideas do not work out in the end. But there will be more ideas. I think the healthiest process is to approach your ideas with mindset that what you get is you can either succeed with your idea or you want to set yourself up better for the next idea that comes. If you look at success stories more often than not they are preceded by failures. If these people treated their idea as if it was the last one they will ever have, they would fail right away and we would never hear about them.

ryandrake 5y ago
> I would not discount working on a side project alongside your day job. If you choose to do this, read your employer's IP assignment policy very carefully. If you work for a large or medium-sized tech company, it is likely that your employer asserts ownership of all IP you produce, at work or at home, using their equipment or yours. This ability is limited in some regions, but even California allows companies to do this if the subject matter of the work is in some way related to the company's business. You don't want to spend 2 years working on a startup, have it gain some level of success, then have your former employer's lawyers mire you in IP lawsuits for the rest of its existence.
- lmilcin 5y ago
  I have worked for a dozen companies and I never seen them trying to smuggle something like that into my contract (but it might be because I work in Poland though mostly for foreign companies). Personally, I would NEVER work for a company that would try to take ownership of something that I made on my own time, effort and resources. And while I never had anybody try this one on me I had companies try other stuff. One company tried to exclude me from my industry by smuggling into contract that I agree not to compete with them for a year after leaving them, competing defined as working in any way with other companies this particular one has any ties to. And since they produce popular banking software and also deliver contractors to practically every Polish bank, it would mean I would be excluded from every single bank doing business in Poland. So I just politely wrote them that I cannot accept that but I can agree not to work for any company that I personally get involved with through working with them and they grudgingly changed the contract terms. In the end, if you are polite and reasonable it is almost always possible to modify the contract terms.
- encoderer 5y ago
  This is true, but unless you are at Google or a similarly vigilant company it doesn't have to be a deal breaker. First, don't hobby in the same space as your employer. Then, hack on the project a little bit, and send your manager and director an email. Explain how it's invigorated you and given you a testing ground for technologies that you will be using to achieve $mission at work. Ask for the company's blessing to work on the project in spare hours on your own equipment. In most cases, you'll get an encouraging response. Reply and say thanks and ask for help getting clearance from Legal and/or a VP or higher. I did this myself building Cronitor.

ryandrake 5y ago

> I would not discount working on a side project alongside your day job. If you choose to do this, read your employer's IP assignment policy very carefully. If you work for a large or medium-sized tech company, it is likely that your employer asserts ownership of all IP you produce, at work or at home, using their equipment or yours. This ability is limited in some regions, but even California allows companies to do this if the subject matter of the work is in some way related to the company's business. You don't want to spend 2 years working on a startup, have it gain some level of success, then have your former employer's lawyers mire you in IP lawsuits for the rest of its existence.

lmilcin 5y ago
I have worked for a dozen companies and I never seen them trying to smuggle something like that into my contract (but it might be because I work in Poland though mostly for foreign companies). Personally, I would NEVER work for a company that would try to take ownership of something that I made on my own time, effort and resources. And while I never had anybody try this one on me I had companies try other stuff. One company tried to exclude me from my industry by smuggling into contract that I agree not to compete with them for a year after leaving them, competing defined as working in any way with other companies this particular one has any ties to. And since they produce popular banking software and also deliver contractors to practically every Polish bank, it would mean I would be excluded from every single bank doing business in Poland. So I just politely wrote them that I cannot accept that but I can agree not to work for any company that I personally get involved with through working with them and they grudgingly changed the contract terms. In the end, if you are polite and reasonable it is almost always possible to modify the contract terms.
encoderer 5y ago
This is true, but unless you are at Google or a similarly vigilant company it doesn't have to be a deal breaker. First, don't hobby in the same space as your employer. Then, hack on the project a little bit, and send your manager and director an email. Explain how it's invigorated you and given you a testing ground for technologies that you will be using to achieve $mission at work. Ask for the company's blessing to work on the project in spare hours on your own equipment. In most cases, you'll get an encouraging response. Reply and say thanks and ask for help getting clearance from Legal and/or a VP or higher. I did this myself building Cronitor.