[iamelgringo]

I have no idea whether to take the gig or not, but just know that if you take the job at Google, you're not going to be able to work on side projects in your spare time.

California law states that as long as the person isn't in direct competition with their employer, they can keep any IP they develop while not on company time. If you work for Google, however, you work for a company who is trying to organize the world's information. So, arguably, pretty much any code you write in your spare time competes with Google.

[lrm242]

I'm sorry, but that isn't correct. California employment law is the most liberal around when it comes to protecting an employees right to perform works on their own time. As long as you don't build a competing search engine, write a competitor to Google mail, etc you're fine. In fact, even if you did, it is likely that Google won't care and won't sue, because the law leans towards the employee in this case.

[iamelgringo]

Ummmm...

I have had a number of conversations with Google employees that have told me that they've been prevented from working on outside projects because of this.

Whether Google is on the right side of the law, or not, that's another conversation entirely, but what I'm telling you is from GOOG employees venting to me about work. YMMV

[cloudkj]

Curious - can you cite any cases to support this?