[skidooer]

On a resume, you would state that you worked under "Your Name", and you can elaborate by describing "A project" to stick with generally accepted formatting rules, but in day to day dialog I have to disagree with your assertions.

A project is exactly how I describe what I am working on, whether I am being paid by someone else or if I am paying myself – someone is always paying for your time, even if that someone is you. I'm sure even you would agree that my day job projects are employment.

I believe my question still remains. If not all projects are employment, when does working on a project become employment? What criteria need to be met?

[georgieporgie]

I believe my question still remains. If not all projects are employment, when does working on a project become employment? What criteria need to be met?

I believe I answered that very clearly in my last response. One likely works on projects as part of employment. One may work on projects outside of employment. 'Project' does not imply 'employment' though typically 'employment' does imply 'project'.

If you start a business, you legally become employed by that business. If you work on a project without a business, you have not constituted employment. As for interviewing, even if you start a business and work on a project, with no completed product or sales to speak of, I think you'll still have a difficult time claiming legitimacy.

[skidooer]

> One likely works on projects as part of employment. One may work on projects outside of employment.

I guess my confusion in your original response comes from the notion in my belief that all work is employment. Although I do believe I have a little bit of a better understanding of where you are coming from now.

With that said, even when I'm hacking away for fun on purely personal projects, I still consider that an act under the umbrella of my business – which does happens to be a corporation in my case, but it need not be. If the project turns into something that is marketable, it will be sold under my business. That also adds to the confusion of where to draw the line.

Ultimately, I strongly believe the employer is going to be interested in what you have been doing no matter what the circumstances. If it is interesting and applicable to the job, it is not going to matter who commissioned the work or how much you were paid to do it and it is certainly going to look a lot better than a job at McDonalds.

[georgieporgie]

Agreed.