Work Samples and the Non-Disclosure Agreement?

ahowl asks: "At my previous employer, I signed a traditional NDA, and when I was laid off, I signed another agreement stating I wasn't taking anything with me that belonged to the company. This included all the scripts, stored procedures, and anything else that I had created while employed. However, most of the subsequent jobs that I was looking at wanted work samples. If this continues I could have a ton of work I've done that I can't show anyone, so what can I do?"

Comments

Incredibly simple (and obvious) solution.

[Seumas]

Show it to them and then kill them.

Re:Incredibly simple (and obvious) solution.

[fm6]

Don't try this at home, boys and girls. Killing people for real is much harder than it is on TV!

Hobby Work

[g_bowskill]

Is there no computer related work you do as a hobby? For example work on open source projects etc... If there is then you could use this as evidence. Perhaps whilst job hunting you could work on a small project just to show your capabilities. Also, surely a company would understand this situation and be sympathetic? Especially if they have a similar N.D.A? Another point to consider, surely just detailing the projects you've worked on, what you did and how you did it could be enough evidence of your capabilities without actually showing them the code you made. Plus I'm sure you can display qualities to them such as your ability to work in a team etc... which are just as if not more important than the code you create, so if you appear strong in these areas and explain why you can't show past work then you could still be in the running for the job. Just my tuppence, Regards, Grant

Speak nicely to your old boss

[turgid]

Speak nicely to your old boss and ask permission to show samples to your new prospective employer. Let old employer and new employer work out the legal details between them (and in the mean time they might both learn a thing or two about the ludicrous nature of "intellectual property" laws). The fact that you've shown the initiative might count for something, and also might demonstrate that your inablity to produce said evidence is not due to its non-existence, but rather beurocracy not of your making.

Re:Speak nicely to your old boss

[rusty0101]

Not speaking as a professional programer, but throwing the ideas out.

A code sample would very rarely consist of an entire functional program, or need to provide a window into the IP of a company.

It may consist of a function that was re-written in the code base. Or it might be a subroutine with comments indicating what this subroutine does, what parameters it may require, and what it returns. It may also consist of a set of requirements, so that a prospective employer can determine if you can program to the requirements.

I would be very surprised if any developer has not worked on some project that snippets of code they developed would not be available for outside review. Projects that were canceled or never went into production would be prime candidates for places to look. Granted even those generate functions that developers re-use in other projects that are completed, but they are a place to look.

-Rusty

Re:Easy

[fm6]

Probably more practical to find an existing project that needs help. Easy enough to find on Sourceforge. Besides, your interactions with other project members will probably do more to establish your reputation than just creating some code that might or might not be interesting to others. Developing software is mostly a collaborative effort these days, and when you demonstrate your ability to collaborate, you're demonstrating a job skill that's just as important as coding.

Before you sign anything consult a lawyer

[Safety Cap]

Before you sign anything consult a lawyer

The guy I use charges $150/hour. Reviewing a standard NDA takes about ... 1 hour. As a result, I've avoided signing things that would make a paper smeared with pig feces more attractive.

Before you sign anything consult a lawyer

Think about how much money you could potentially lose because you can't show your potential future employer any samples. Is that work 150 bones?

So.

Before you sign anything consult a lawyer