This is a great post. Back when I was a corporate developer doing .NET, I never had many side projects. Maybe just a library or simple utility to do things like move photos around.<p>Now as a developer primarily working in Ruby, I always feel the need to have a side project to hack on in addition to my day job. The side projects allow for unsafe experimentation with new technologies. After a reasonable amount of vetting, I find that I'm able to make better decisions in my day job as a result. I think most Ruby developers today work in a similar fashion.<p>The startups that I've worked for never had much concern about what I did in my personal time, but now that I'm working for an acquired company that's part of a big corporate entity, it's a little different. I get more of the looks, comments, etc and can't be as public about my side projects. Also I can't take the side projects as seriously (i.e. get paid subscribers) because that could jeopardize my employment. I'm okay with this for now, but I understand that many would find this appalling. I think you just have to find the right balance between what's good for you versus what's good for them.
The managers that forbid their employees to work on side projects are plain dumb.<p>The most important gain for the employer is the fact that the employee trains himself on new technologies, for free, in his own spare time.<p>The risk would be that the employee might leave if his side project is a success. With around 4% rate of high success in the startup world, the risk of leaving is quite small.
<p><pre><code> > they thought for some reason they owned everything
> I created, at any time, ever (sorry, no)
</code></pre>
How common is this? I have yet to encounter it, but if I did I'd consider it an enormous red flag. It sends some very strong messages:<p><pre><code> - We lack the respect for you to even be subtle about
leveraging the asymmetry of our power relationship in
order to try to fuck you.
- None of your potential future colleagues here are likely
to be passionate about their craft, because people who enjoy
making things of their own don't sign our contract.
</code></pre>
I'm aware that employers are often willing to compromise about things like that during negotiations, but by that point the message has surely been sent.
When a company makes claim to your after hours work, Is that the line between a "corporation" and "start up"?<p>I saw this at a previous company (some say it's common place). They put the legal-sleaze into the stock option documents saying employees would have to seek written consent for work outside of the company. So classy!
I work on my side project every spare minutes I have. Tools that I create on the side have benefited my employer so much. If they were to give me a hard time it will be their loss. I can always quit and work in my own, smaller pay check but you get peace of mind.
I'm also a big fan of side projects. Problem is, i'm a product guy, and the whole point of what I do is to try and make things people want. Not learn a new technology. I still haven't been able to find the right balance. Any advice?
I've used my various side projects to learn technologies that I then use in my actual job. For example, I first tested Redis on my side project, as well as a JS/CSS compressor and a newer version of Django.