Handling employer conflict of interest as a part-time searcher
August 05, 2022
by a searcher in San Jose, CA, USA
I work for a large tech company and pretty sure my original employment agreement has a clause about side projects. As I am planning to launch my search it occurred to me that if I put my name on my website, it could easily be discovered by my employer.
Has anyone else figured out a model to establish a personal brand via a professional website, without triggering potential concerns from your employer?
I'm not referring to direct conflict of interest, but more to a generic conflict of interest (e.g. time) based on the original employment agreement.
Appreciate any insight on this1
from Babson College in Austin, TX, USA
My two cents is that you should not have a public/professional website if you are doing a part-time search.
First off, investment of time is questionable. Particularly when you're PT and there are X number of higher ROI activities you could be doing. If you're doing a brokered search, even less valuable as a resume should suffice for potential sellers.
Second, the cost/benefit is low as an employee. I'm assuming you want the safety net of salary as you search, if you have a public site, then if your employer finds out then they will question your commitment.
To Bradley's point, they have no right how you use your outside time. But, as a searcher, you are likely going to be searching during your work hours as well as that is when business gets done.
from Dartmouth College in San Diego, CA, USA
Your employer (in CA at least) doesn’t have any rights to how you spend time outside of work so there are no actual conflicts of interest.