"You're not allowed to work on your own projects when you're not at work"
The biggest red flag ever
The biggest red flag ever
But some companies take this to an extreme.
I was working on a niche clothing brand at home in my spare time for example when I wanted to work for a gaming startup. They were giving me such a repulsively hard time about my side project even though the clothing had literally nothing conceivably close to the company's business model.
It's so stupid because companies should try and hire people that have diverse experiences and are working hard to achieve something.
But, for companies that are batshit anal about side-projects, they're going to make you sign some onerous contract and have management that are assholes about this kind of thing.
What happens in the event that you "hit the lottery" and some side-project becomes a big deal worth a lot of money? Somebody from your company is eventually going to find out about it: maybe from a public interview or from public records. If they put 2 + 2 together about when you built this and figure out that they can file some legal claim to it, you're in a mess of a legal situation that you don't need to be in.
Safer to put your cards on the table and make sure there's nothing in an employment agreement that puts something you really care about at risk.
The percentage of companies that are very anal about side-projects isn't substantial. They need you more than you need them and it's safer to be honest and look elsewhere for employment.
Was told exactly the same, verbatim, followed by "besides you won't have time to work on them anyways".
like texas and california diametrically opposed (I think)
texas: we own you
california: you can start a startup in your garage while working for someone else