[wglb]

If the gig looks like a real thing, I sign the NDA and other related paperwork after review with my lawyer. He quite often gives the agreement a good beat-down. My favorite voicemail of all time was from him after reviewing one such agreement. The entire voicemail was "Egregious".

I don't sign NDAs casually--that is if someone wants me to hear about an idea for a startup, I won't. But for any situation that I have done actual business with there has been a signed NDA.

For perspective, many of my engagements are multi-month situations.

If a company is into something interesting and you are doing interesting work for them, this means that 1) they are in some kind of competitive position and 2) waht they are doing is Interesting and 3) you are part of their leverage in their business situation.

I do like a lot dctoedt's recommendation (do check out his link), and have made some of them bi-directional. That is, they also have to pony up agreeing to keep whatever trade secrets I bring to the equation under the same terms. This, of course, triggers their reflex to say "well you have to tell us first" and then there is no trouble making that symmetric.