Is Your Interview Illegal? 5

[Dimandja]

If this subject has already been addressed here, please red-flag this post.

You sign the usual "confidentiality agreement" with an employer. Later, you are interviewing with another employer.

During the interview they want you to provide a "detailed" expose of your previous experience.

At what point do you violate the confidentiality agreement? Will you point out that a certain response may violate a previous committment? During a heavily technical interview, is it possible to wow a potential employer without violating a standard confidentiality agreement? If you have been through this kind of situation before, how did you handle it?

Dimandja

 

[CajunCenturion]

I've always handled that situation along the lines of, "I can't go into specifics for obvious reasons, but in general terms, here's what we did."

It's also quite possible that the interviewer will be impressed that you honored your previous committments. Otherwise, the interviewer may receive the message that you do not respect trade secrets and the like, and that you will then in turn reveal their trade secrets down the road.

I have on more than one occasion turned down an applicant because they did not respect their previous employer's intellectual property. There is no reason to assume they'll respect my IP when that time comes.

Good Luck
--------------
As a circle of light increases so does the circumference of darkness around it. - Albert Einstein

 

[smedvid]

Well confidential data is one thing, but discussion about overall projects and high-level techical methods of implementation are another thing.

For example, I worked for a tabacco company working with confidential data related to the process steps involved in production of cigs. This involved analysis/design of existing systems, cost analysis, development of new systems, databases, environmental compliance reports, etc...

If asked technical development details, I would reveal the high-level approaches used. Such as SQL Server BCP to load large volumes of data, VB Front Ends, Various extracts to Excel, etc. I would not provide code or data examples.

A potential employer should respect your ethics if you opt not to delve into specific details due to your committment to confidentiality.

htwh,

Steve Medvid
"IT Consultant & Web Master"

http://www.saveourfarm.com

Chester County, PA Residents
Please Show Your Support...

 

[KornGeek]

I agree. I let them know the kinds of things I've done without providing specific details. You signed the agreement, so you should abide by it. In turn, they should respect you more for that. If they turn you down because of this, then it's probably not a company you really want to work for. They might be the next Enron.

I've also used this to my advantage. A previous employer made it abundantly clear that we were not to disclose wage information, and made this part of the NDA. The primary concern was coworkers finding out. However, because this was a part of the NDA, I felt comfortable in interviews refusing to disclose my current earnings. I explained that they were covered by my NDA, but were in line with industry averages. That was sufficient, and neatly side-stepped that often tricky situation.

 

[SQLSister]

If you have a nondisclosure agreement (or work with classified government information), then you need to think very carefully before you interview about how you will sell yourself and your technical skills without revealing what you have agreed not to reveal. You can't expect potential employers not to want to know enough about what you have done technically to be able to make a decision about whether you have the technical abilities they need. Lots of people lie about their technical capabiliites, it fair to ask people to truly explain what they have done with a particular technology.

However, as someone who has sat on a lot of interview panels, I can tell you we never eliminated someone for not telling us something that he had agreed not to reveal. But if he then didn't convince us he could do our job, we still didn't hire him.

 

[chiph]

I wouldn't talk about it for three reasons:

1) You did sign a non-disclosure agreement, and can be sued for violating it.

2) The other company could be pumping you for free info: "Gee, thanks for stopping by, but we don't need you now".

3) It could be a test to see if you would pass any of their info to a competitor after being hired.

Chip H.


If you want to get the best response to a question, please check out FAQ222-2244 first

 

[Onyxpurr]

The only other situation I can think of is when I did development for a small company/entrepreneur.

I signed a non-disclosure, but was interviewing for jobs and relatively new in the field.

I went back to that company and asked if I could share the program. We discussed it and had a mutual agreement to what could be shown and what couldn't.

In my current job, I have to abide by federal laws of privacy, so for my portfolio I do screen shots, but block out private information. My current boss is aware of this as I have internally interviewed with this portfolio and have shown it to several managers.

 

[BabyJeffy]

I'm a contractor and find myself developing intranets more often than not. Screen shots (again without showing sensitive data) are the only tangibles that I can show a prospective employer... and I usually get these sorted out *before* I leave a contract (and begin looking for another).

Discussing high level techniques is usually all that is required. My CV specifically states that I work on intranets, so I think everyone accepts that it's IP I can't be showing off.

Safest thing is to just be up front. If they want to see your work, then your referees aren't doing a good enough job. Get some new ones.

Jeff

 

[Stella740pl]

Several years ago a prospective employer (if I remember correctly, he was a manager in a consulting company, though I am not sure now) called in response to my resume with a request to send him a list of references and real samples of the code I've written before we even start to discuss anything. Usually, in my experience, everyone checks references after at least one interview, or at least after discussing a consulting project if they have one suitable for me, not on the first contact. But it was the request for real code that made me uneasy. Probably, I should have told him right away that according to my contracts, the code belongs to the companies I was working for (I've been a consultant then) and should be treated as sensitive information. But for some reason, I backed off, and just didn't call back. I don't know, did he really want to see what I can do, or was just checking me on ethical issues.

So far, I met no one else asking for code. I had to pass a computerized test in one company, and to write code on the interview in another, but this is different. But I never thought anyone would be interested in screen shots. I should have known better.

Stella

 

[jrbarnett]

My own experience is to take the attitude of chiph and smedvid, just saying that its not appropriate given the sensitive nature of the environments in which I have worked (and this can be justified). More recently, if they have wanted code samples to indicate the quality of my work, and give them the URL of my personal website which has a few examples.

John

 

[smedvid]

Along those lines... Everyone should have a personal portfolio that shows details of projects you worked on.

In my case, I've kept extensive design, system and user documentation on all systems. Basically, the entire life cycle. I just take these along when I interview. In one case, an employer wanted to make a copy of my documentation so other technical staff could review it. I really think they wanted to use it as their template. I had to refuse their request, since all of my documentation typically has a Copy Right or Confidential footer. I did end up getting the consulting job, thanks to my detailed documentation.

I am also very selective of what I show. For example, I would not show my docuemtation on air dispersion modeling for a local chemical company. But, I would talk about the high-level overview.


Steve Medvid
"IT Consultant & Web Master"

http://www.saveourfarm.com

Chester County, PA Residents
Please Show Your Support...

 

[KornGeek]

I think the key is to keep it high-level. For instance (hypothetical example), if you had been working for a bank, you might say that you created the user-interface for their ATM's. This would be appropriate. Providing details of algorithms, back-doors, etc. would not.

 

[SemperFiDownUnda]

For me its been easy. For Classified projects (ie government) my CV doesn't even hint to any of that but the fact that I have a clearance.

For Commercial projects that are confidental anything I think will help my portfolio I get written permission on what and how I can use it.

For Commercial projects where I have signed no NDA and nothing was marked Commercial in Confidence I'll review what I have and pick and choise but will still inform the managers of what I am doing and what I intend to use it for.

These range from using database diagrams, to prototypes of web sites/programs, to technical and requirement specs to actual programs and web sites. When asked if I can design databases I often pull out a large diagram and focus them in on a complex section after saying something like "This is the database I designed for So-and-So and here we had an interesting situation where we needed to do such-and-such and this is how I tackled it." Funny because many of my interviews are not with highly technical people and its fun to watch them get wide eyed and know you've just dumped a ocean on them and then you focus them to a smaller area of the ocean, talk in layman's term letting them start to swim.

Many people have suggested this, just get permission first. You may have some employers that are A.R. and you just deal with it. If in doubt and you really want to get some advice from a lawer that deals in IP. Often you can recreate a similar, but not identical, prototype to convey what you did without breaking and NDA.

Hope I've been helpful,
Wayne Francis

If you want to get the best response to a question, please check out FAQ222-2244 first