Contact a lawyer and / or the client company and ask about things. You - and the client company - can either just yolo and chance a lawsuit, or the client company can come to an agreement with your current employer and buy you out.
Ask HN: Pitfalls in jumping ship to a client company?
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Re: Ask HN: Pitfalls in jumping ship to a client company?
#12I jumped ships to customer company and it proved great. That being said my non compete agreement didn't apply because there was 2 proxies in between so no direct competition. Better work agreement, also meant I could move countries, didn't regret it.
Re: Ask HN: Pitfalls in jumping ship to a client company?
#13Rule of life: always ask.
I’ve always said no is the second best answer and in most cases the sooner you get a definitive answer the better.
Re: Ask HN: Pitfalls in jumping ship to a client company?
#14I have seen this done a few times without consequences BUT always after a pretty strong informal expression of client's interest.
You will need support from client company anyway, so I would start with an informal conversation with your team there. If that team wants you they can cut most of the interview process, too.
But there may be pitfalls: they may be contractually restricted from hiring you (not legally prohibited, but enough to make it a pain not worth it), etc. An informal conversation can explore options without your intent to jump ship leaking to your current employer.
Re: Ask HN: Pitfalls in jumping ship to a client company?
#15Other than the points already raised around the client's contract with your employer possibly containing clauses saying they can't hire you away without discussing it with your employer I would be worried about any NDAs you've signed.
You're going to be entering an environment where you're still talking about the project you were working on day to day, but now you'll be doing so with a client. If you can make it an amicable move by ensuring both sides are involved in the discussion you're probably fine, but if your current employer doesn't want you going I could see them making use of NDAs to severely restrict what you're able to do, even if just by forcing you to make sure everything you discuss in the new job is meticulously documented in order to cover yourself in the case of future legal actions.
As others have also said, get a lawyer (your lawyer - anyone hired by either your current or future employer isn't your lawyer, they are the employer's lawyer) to review everything before making a leap.
Re: Ask HN: Pitfalls in jumping ship to a client company?
#16It is common for consulting or professional services contracts to include non-solicitation clauses. In other words, the client company may have already committed to your employer that they would not hire any of its employees for the duration of the contract and for some time after.
If you were not involved in the negotiation and signing of the engagement agreement, then you probably don't have any way to find out if the contract contains a clause like this. If it does—and even if it doesn't—the leadership of the team at that company may feel an obligation to tell your employer that you have applied for a job with them.
Re: Ask HN: Pitfalls in jumping ship to a client company?
#17Hey, I did this ~5 years ago! I was working as a consultant in client company's office (4 days a week) and they opened a position similar to mine there.
I contacted our legal team to ask about the no-compete cause but they told me that the client is not a competitor to my employer so no problem there. No mention about recruiting from supplier either.
Luckily all went well and the client company negotiated things with my employer. I have no idea what kind of compensatory deals they made behind my back as my employer was asking for an yearly fee for my service.
Getting the employers to negotiate about transferring a specialist worked for me, hope you find a solution too.
I've been really happy working for a client, handling multiple different clients was stressing me out.
Re: Ask HN: Pitfalls in jumping ship to a client company?
#18Perspective context: Am CTO who has converted consultants to staff before.
There is nothing stopping you personally from changing roles like everyone says and non competes are not enforceable in California.
However B2B contracts usually don't have any such limitations, so there might be a liability for damages between the client and your current company. This is the main reason you need to raise this up to people who has insight into the contracts between client and your current company ON THE CLIENT SIDE FIRST.
Then, and ONLY then imo should you bring it up with your current employer to try to do it in a way that steps on no toes. You need to make sure that the client is allowed to do it based on the contract frameworks AND that they want you before you open that can of worms. It might also be beneficial to have the client be the one to approach your current employer in a gentlemans approach, especially if your client has access to higher up decision makers than you naturally have in your current job.
Then it's up to your current employer how much hell they wanna raise and your political manouvering internally and how you break the news will probably be integral to that. However as long as there are no regulation of this between client and current employer the only thing you might be doing is burn a reference bridge.
Re: Ask HN: Pitfalls in jumping ship to a client company?
#19It is common for consulting or professional services contracts to include non-solicitation clauses. In other words, the client company may have already committed to your employer that they would not hire any of its employees for the duration of the contract and for some time after. If you were not involved in the negotiation and signing of the engagement agreement, then you probably don't have any way to find out if…
Any agreement not to hire employees without including the employees in the negoation would be illegal therefore void in most countries. Including the US where Apple and Google (maybe someone else) were caught having agreements not to hire from each other. It removes the ability for the employee to find the best salary/option/etc for themselves.
Re: Ask HN: Pitfalls in jumping ship to a client company?
#20Consider whether you can do this move with everything above board. These two companies (and more importantly, the people working in them) have a business relationship to maintain. You want to be a positive part of that story, not the one creating problems for everyone.
Ideally, you'd want to be able to discuss this move openly with both the target company and your current employer and get everyone's blessing. If not, there's a risk that if the relationship between the two companies sours because of your attempt to move, you'll be the one thrown under the bus.