Why I Quit Google to Work for Myself

Re:Why I Quit Google to Work for Myself by q3k on Wednesday February 28, 2018 @03:58PM (#16486843)

> Second, you're a lot better off working at a good company -- MUCH better off

Working at Google ruined my mental health. Granted, it hasn't been great to begin with, but being in SRE made my absolutely miserable. Every night, coming intellectually wasted and couldn't even work on my own project because of draconian IP clauses in my contract.

Quit half a year ago, went (back) into freelancing and I couldn't be happier. Don't care about the money or prestige anymore.

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Re:Why I Quit Google to Work for Myself by TheArcane on Thursday March 01, 2018 @08:58AM (#16491996)

> draconian IP clauses in my contract.

Is this standard Google policy?

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Re:Why I Quit Google to Work for Myself by q3k on Thursday March 01, 2018 @09:40AM (#16492323)

Yes. All intellectual property you work on, including in your spare time at home on your laptop, belongs to Google and you have to go through a reassignment procedure where they declare they're not interested in your work.

Which is okay if you work on one personal project at a time, but breaks down if you hop from project to project with friends. Waste of everyone's time.

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Re:Why I Quit Google to Work for Myself by cloverich on Thursday March 01, 2018 @09:50AM (#16492409)

Genuinely curious how enforceable it is, and how often it is enforced. That is, if you jump from project to project with your friends, on your own time and equipment, is there a legal case that despite whatever you signed its null? Similarly, how often does Google go after people like this?

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Re:Why I Quit Google to Work for Myself by q3k on Thursday March 01, 2018 @12:42PM (#16494228)

I'd rather not end up in court against Google lawyers. Or generally have to work around agreements that I sign.

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