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I'm going to be a software developer in NYC. I signed an assignment statement so that everything copyrightable that I create belongs to my employer's client. So basically, my only marketable skill is something I can't use. I'm thinking that my only options are (1) Part-time, non-creative employment (2) Try to create an 800k/year ecommerce business (1) seems out because I have no useful non-development skills, but I want to make a non-lovely amount of money for my time (2) seems out because, even though I should have some extra money to throw at it, and I have enough knowledge to get some basic ecommerce sites up and running with some basic SEO, it's just not something that most people can do Am I missing anything? Or do I really have no options other than making sandwiches or trying to sell whiskey stills?
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Apr 18, 2014 03:04
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| # ? Apr 18, 2024 06:52 |
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Is that legal? How can someone own everything creative you do in your off time? Seems like something that wouldn't stand up in court
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Apr 18, 2014 03:22
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They're pretty standard and enforceable basically everywhere except California, where the state outlawed them, if I understand correctly.
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Apr 18, 2014 03:30
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Really? Even if it's not related to software? That's whack.
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Apr 18, 2014 03:54
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Yeah, I'm pretty sure they're fairly standard. I don't know if it's legally enforceable or not but both of the ones I've had to sign covered not just inventions/ideas related to my direct work but anything I come up while I was employed by them. Pretty much crap.
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Apr 18, 2014 04:11
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TouchyMcFeely posted:I don't know if it's legally enforceable or not but both of the ones I've had to sign covered not just inventions/ideas related to my direct work but anything I come up while I was employed by them. That doesn't sound legal at all in my non-expert opinion. Maybe it's because I work in a country without ridiculously employer biased labor laws, but if someone put a contract in front of me like that I'd be expecting a salary in the $300,000 range to compensate for technically working 24 hours, 7 days a week, 52 weeks a year. But if they have clauses like that in your contract, surely they'd have one forbidding you working a second job to avoid the potential legal shitstorm when you come up an idea for the other job, while working at the other job.
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Apr 18, 2014 06:25
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Oh, yeah, I have to notify my employer if I am ever employed elsewhere at the same time I'm employed by them.
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Apr 18, 2014 06:54
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EB Nulshit posted:Oh, yeah, I have to notify my employer if I am ever employed elsewhere at the same time I'm employed by them. Well I guess your only real option is to ask them for more money then.
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Apr 18, 2014 07:00
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Is your employer of a size large enough to afford teams of lawyers on the offchance they found out you were working for anyone else or yourself? Sounds ridiculous to me.
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Apr 18, 2014 07:10
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I'm so glad I don't live in a country run by corporate oligachs.
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Apr 18, 2014 11:41
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Dog Blogs Man posted:Is your employer of a size large enough to afford teams of lawyers on the offchance they found out you were working for anyone else or yourself? Yes.
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Apr 18, 2014 12:15
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How much are you making because if you have any experience at all, software isn't a field where you have to cling to one job(unless they're giving you like 100k for entry level or something). There are others out there. Especially in a big city like NYC.
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Apr 18, 2014 14:45
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Please take everything said in here with a grain of salt. E/N you don't have any ideas of what your e business is going to be and you're on contract for what, 6 months, a year? Nobody gives a poo poo what you do at YOUR AMAZING SOFTWARE COMPANY off the clock. You're fine. Also your road to financial independence is loving stupid. Had to throw that in. You make 70 dollars an hour, and your background is having one job that you quit for this one, for 7 months. You literally had it in your brain that being homeless in NYC was a viable option for your move. Ground yourself in reality bud. To give actual advice, I think it would be a bad idea to try and get a part time job on the side of this job you're currently making an assload of money at. If you work on a side project and roll it out when your contract finishes at this company, that would be a nice way to supplement your income after your contract ends. Veskit fucked around with this message at 15:35 on Apr 18, 2014 |
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Apr 18, 2014 15:07
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Hm, yeah. There's nothing that is going to come close to paying the same amount for my time, and if I'm only doing it on the weekend, it's going to be even less effective. Alrighty. Just wanted to confirm that I'm basically doing everything I can reasonably do on the income front. Guess I could learn a new skill, though. Or use that time to improve my current skills. I did some reading yesterday and it seems that >$200k/yr total comp is not at all unreasonable as an employee of a huge tech company in an expensive city, if you're highly skilled and can function independently and as a leader of a team. That seems to be something that takes 3-5 years, but I bet I could do it in 2-3 years if I'm careful about where I allocate my time. Improving my skills and trying to get into a big tech company full-time is probably my best bet. It seems a lot of these companies have basically two entry-level-ish positions and then a senior position, where having a masters will get you in as the second entry-level position for like $20k/yr more. But I just moved here, so a master's, even from a public school, will be really expensive and probably not worth it, since you would eventually be able to get past that salary range at any company regardless of whether you had a masters or not. Veskit posted:E/N you don't have any ideas of what your e business is going to be Yeah, that's the hard part. I always imagined that I could make and sell my own product once I got better at development, but this assignment statement kind of throws a wrench in that. It means I would have to sell things created by other people - and the only reasonable way to do that would be drop-shipping, but getting a start on drop-shipping in 2014 seems pretty late. I'd rather not work on anything I'd want to sell right now, to completely avoid the possibility of getting smacked down later. EB Nulshit fucked around with this message at 12:54 on Apr 20, 2014 |
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Apr 20, 2014 12:46
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honestly, if you're making $70/hour, maybe it's time to get back to the budget thread, and maybe take it seriously this time.
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Apr 20, 2014 12:58
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Yes you could dream of making 200k or learn to manage with the approximately 150k you're currently making.
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Apr 24, 2014 00:33
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It sounds like your best bet would be to manage your budget better and use your free time (legally determined to be not financially productive) to study for yourself or just read more books or take up a hobby or something, and if you decide that it's super important to be able to work an extra 30 hours on top of your existing work week just for the sake of making more money (to do what?), keep that in mind for your next review or for when your contract expires.
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May 8, 2014 10:28
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