Lets say I went to grad school to do "A" but didn't have the entrepreneurial vision at the time or had visa/family issues to worry about to turn "A" into anything significant. After grad school, I got a job offer from a big name mining manufacturer to do something remotely related to "A" and have since spent close to a decade, only rarely getting to do "A". After seeing how things happen at Big Corp., as well as being in an almost burnt out state with Corporate, I have decided to go about my own way. However, recently, a gap has been created for people who can do "A" in the org. So at this point, is it better to switch to the team where I'd be doing "A" while I work on my pet project/future startup in the same area, with work that is overlapping ? or just stay in my current position doing "B", which I don't enjoy, but have gotten good at, while working on my own side project for "A". (FYI here "B" is Time-series Data Science/ML/prediction/prognostics while "A" being Robotics/Perception/CV research.
Ask HN: Start own company or get into desired role at Big Corp. first?
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Re: Ask HN: Start own company or get into desired role at Big Corp. first?
#2Be careful of your employment agreement. It may say they own anything you conceive of or develop while in their employment.
Re: Ask HN: Start own company or get into desired role at Big Corp. first?
#3Be careful of your employment agreement. It may say they own anything you conceive of or develop while in their employment.
That is part of the reason for this question, possible IP conflicts. Ideally, I'd like to work independently on independent stuff from work, but sometimes fear becoming a bystander to the technical progress in the desired area (which happens to be progressing at breakneck speed as well. Also, some languages (C++) that lend themselves more towards real-time/production applications, are not used in my current role, so there is knowledge decay if I stay in my role and slip on my own projects, which happens more often when work stress increases, or there are other commitments.
Re: Ask HN: Start own company or get into desired role at Big Corp. first?
#4Be careful of your employment agreement. It may say they own anything you conceive of or develop while in their employment.
That is part of the reason for this question, possible IP conflicts. Ideally, I'd like to work independently on independent stuff from work, but sometimes fear becoming a bystander to the technical progress in the desired area (which happens to be progressing at breakneck speed as well. Also, some languages (C++) that lend themselves more towards real-time/production applications, are not used in my current role, so…
Also the employment agreement only mentions "inventions while on company time using company resources" so if its on my own time using my own resources, I should be good ?
Re: Ask HN: Start own company or get into desired role at Big Corp. first?
#5Earlier quoted context omitted.
That is part of the reason for this question, possible IP conflicts. Ideally, I'd like to work independently on independent stuff from work, but sometimes fear becoming a bystander to the technical progress in the desired area (which happens to be progressing at breakneck speed as well. Also, some languages (C++) that lend themselves more towards real-time/production applications, are not used in my current role, so…
Also the employment agreement only mentions "inventions while on company time using company resources" so if its on my own time using my own resources, I should be good ?
I am not a lawyer, so I can’t tell you “good.” I am just an engineer/entrepreneur/consultant, so I have some experience with this stuff.
It is always a good idea to separate private projects from company projects and time. Avoid taking anything “free” from your employer/contractor, like software subscriptions, code, etc. and mixing them up with your private projects. Keep a notebook (with date and time) recording what you are doing privately and where you are getting resources from. Use a separate laptop when possible. Stuff like that can help you be disciplined. Good luck!