Working for competing companies

S

shindig

New member
Jul 21, 2012
1,290
10
0
Seattle, WA
Do you keep it separate, not discussing specifics of what you do at the other company? Do you pick a favorite and share stuff with them? I haven't signed any nda's, both companies are small and not really formal about rules, but both are doing very similar work.

I work full time at one company and contract nights and weekends at the other from home.

So far I've been sharing what I make with my main employer. Everything, giving him a copy of the entire project. At the same time he buys tons of shit I get access to on my own time that I otherwise couldn't afford.

The company I'm contracting for can afford a lot more than my main employer, but I feel loyal to them because I have an awesome work environment and they've invested a lot of money in me.

How do you guys handle it? Probably similar if you have regular work with a couple clients, do you share shit with each of them?
 


You are a full time employee and have a contracting job with a competitor?

That's a bit different than those of us here who run our own business and may have two contracting jobs with companies in the same niche/industry.

Surely you had to sign some paperwork at your full-time job. If so, that sounds like where you should start looking as far as legality goes.
 
What exactly are you talking about? Are you working for a marketing agency with clients? Ecommerce? Merchant?

I work for a marketing agency and all staff members are required to sign documentation of non-compete as well as no harm contracts.
 
ToddW said:
You are a full time employee and have a contracting job with a competitor?

That's a bit different than those of us here who run our own business and may have two contracting jobs with companies in the same niche/industry.

Surely you had to sign some paperwork at your full-time job. If so, that sounds like where you should start looking as far as legality goes.
Click to expand...

No just gave them a tax id number so technically I contract for them too but I spend 40+ hours in the office per week and get paid twice a month based on an invoice based on hours. Also bring all my gear home and use it for my other work. I have insurance through my gf's employer.

The work is programming related, making games, mobile apps, etc. with a game engine using motion sensors like kinect, leap motion, and augmented reality stuff.
 
Using your knowledge gained from working on projects for company A with company B just goes along with contracting. Telling company A what company B is doing... not something I'd do. Now, if it's public and you're just sharing it then I don't see a problem with that. IE: Yeah, we just changed their eCommerce platform from x to Y because ___ didn't work right. Or, so and so has had problems with this module so you want to keep an eye out.
 
ToddW said:
Using your knowledge gained from working on projects for company A with company B just goes along with contracting. Telling company A what company B is doing... not something I'd do. Now, if it's public and you're just sharing it then I don't see a problem with that. IE: Yeah, we just changed their eCommerce platform from x to Y because ___ didn't work right. Or, so and so has had problems with this module so you want to keep an eye out.
Click to expand...
Pretty much, except I shared some examples from work(presentation) at a local meetup group and got a couple people all over my nuts wanting me to make a couple demos with the kinect at the companies they work for, which have actually been pretty interesting, but basic projects.

Tomorrow I'm going out to lunch and a beer with company B and not sure I should talk about specifics as far as what plugins/libraries/software we're using. But at the same time it's experience I have working with. But the company B guy is also someone from a local chapter of devs who meet and share stuff, so a good personal contact to toss ideas around with doing similar stuff to me at company b.
 
shindig, you're selling your expertise. if i bulid a financial model for somebody, i'll share enough to another client to show what i can do but not enough that they could rape it. you have to decide where to draw that line and realize the client always wants you to give them whatever you will for free.

give enough to show them you're the man, not enough to let them use you.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom