Anyone ever taken a job with direct competitor?

[homer]

I work in the software industry and have been contacted by a direct competitor to interview for a job. Has anyone ever gone through this? I feel a little like I'm stabbing my company in the back if I choose to leave - not to mention I'd be leaving my little group in a bind resource wise.

[Ralph Wiggum]

I just actually had an interview with a company which is a direct competitor to mine. The contacted me out of the blue and said they were interested in talking with me.

 

Personally, I took it as a compliment that they noticed my work and went out of their way to call me. If I were the one fishing for the interview, I'd have felt a little worse about it. Really, you'd be doing yourself a disservice by not at least going to talk with them. At the very least, you can learn a little about how the competition operates. If your current company really wants to keep you, they'll find a way to do it. If they don't, maybe it's time to make a move anyway. They'll kick themselves when you are doing good things for the competition.

[BuckyTuba]

In the nuclear industry, there's no real way to move from job to job without going to another competitor. I've been looking around a little bit for jobs at other plants because we have a union vote that would set back my career path about 5-6 years if the union is put in.

 

I'm looking at moving into a different department or leaving the company all together if we get the union. The only stipulation is that I need to stay at this plant for another 9 months before I would get penalized for my relocation bonus. If I left before then, I would have to forfeit the $3000 reimbursement I received to move from Milwaukee to Raleigh.

 

I am currently looking at Dominion Resources (Virginia and Wisconsin) and Duke Energy (Charlotte, NC)

[rluzinski]

An engineer in a union?

 

As for feeling bad, don't. Your company will always do what's in their best interest and you should do the same.

[BuckyTuba]

russ, i'm actually an operator... not an engineer. therefore I'm lumped into the craft/technical group instead of engineering. It's the IBEW union group.

[jwill535]

That was my whole dilema. I work as a designer for a HVAC company and was contacted by an competitor in town. Even though i love the place i work at I felt i should just go and hear what they had to say. They asked what it would take, I told them i would need a 10-15% raise an extra week of vacation and other requests. I did this knowing I already had a good job and figured why not shoot for the moon. Well long story short, they sent me an offer letter with exactly what i wanted and i am leaving my current company for the new one. When i quit i neglected to mention where i was going to working at next.

[BraunsBoyfriend]

rluzinski is right on. ALWAYS do what is in your best interest. Your company will not hesitate to get rid of you if it will result in higher profits.

 

The software industry (I work in it too) is a dog eat dog world anyways. Your company won't hesitate to get rid of you to outsource a job and you shouldn't hesitate about working for a competitor.

 

It's about you and about making as much money as you can. I'm not saying you have to be immoral or kick other people on the way up, but if another company finds you to be more valuable then you need to go there.

 

Just getting a job offer is a good way to get a promotion at your current company anyways.

 

However, id you signed a no-compete clause when you were hired, the competitor better be out of state. You have to wait a year to work for direct competitors in many states.

[dadofandrew]

Would it be different if you went somewhere else first and then to a direct competitor of the original company?

 

Do what's best for you.

[Brian the Automator]

I don't see anything wrong with going to a competitor. Remember though, the IT industry is very incestuous, so just do you best not to burn any bridges on the way out.

[homer]

Quote:

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Remember though, the IT industry is very incestuous, so just do you best not to burn any bridges on the way out.

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That's sort of what concerns me. I'm sort of a niche segment of the software industry.

[BraunsBoyfriend]

dadofandrew, usually it's a time duration. There are limits too. Generally the rule of thumb is you can't work for a direct competitor in the same state for one year after leaving a place of employment.

 

But the law varies everywhere and it can be hard to enforce.

 

For instance, I believe these types of laws are illegal in California.

 

Don't take my word for it though. Do some research.

[dadofandrew]

I never heard of such a thing. Is that an unwritten rule or is this actually on the books somewhere?

[Brian the Automator]

[ I never heard of such a thing. Is that an unwritten rule or is this actually on the books somewhere? ]

 

It can be written into your employee contract.

[dadofandrew]

How can that be enforced? What are they going to do, fire ya?

[Brian the Automator]

[ How can that be enforced? What are they going to do, fire ya?http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif ]

 

They can take legal action against you and/or the company that hired you.

[Katuluu]

Similar clauses are typically written into contracts in the finance industry as well. Though once your initial contract runs out (typically 1-2 years) you are free to work without one and may leave at your own discretion.

[Schlitz001]

Interesting that the non-competition agreement is being discussed here because it's a hot topic right now with my company. I work as a geologist, creating drilling logs for operating companies. Anyway, one operating company that I worked for, for about a month earlier in the year recently contacted me. They wanted to hire me and about 10 other emoplyees from my company to work for them directly. They were offering $175 a day more than my current company.

 

About 3 days after receiving this offer, everyone working for my company was e-mailed an "updated" copy of the companies non-competition agreement to sign. I signed a copy when I started, so it was fishy that I received a new copy to sign. My boss was also very vague about what was different in this agreement than the previous one (which I didn't read before signing).

 

The new agreement states that my current company can stop me from working for a competitor for 2 years for no reason at all. A large portion of the employees in my company have refused to sign the new agreement and my company is in talks with their lawyer about what they can leaglly do.

 

In the mean time I turned down the competitors job because they lack the benefits (health, dental, stock, PPTO) that my current company offers. However, I have still not signed the non-comp agreement.

 

My suggestion to anyone thinking about working for a competitor is to make sure you know if you legally can first. On top of that consider location, benefits, pay, chance of being promoted, and loyalty to your current company.

[homer]

A lot of times you'll see non compete clauses when a company signs a big deal with another company. For example, we sell $10,000,000 worth of software to a company, there is usually some language in the agreement that says no one from my company can go work for them and no one from there can come work for us until the terms of the contract are met.

[EdgarDiazRocks]

How can that be enforced? What are they going to do, fire ya?

 

In my business 6 month non-competes are standard in contracts and are very serious.

 

companies will make your life hell and often back another company down from hiring you for fear of a legal battle after they commited to you verbally, leaving totally twisting in the wind.

[BraunsBoyfriend]

If you want to see cross state examples (which are nearly impossible to enforce) check our Microsoft VS Google. For awhile there, Google was just hand picking employee after employee from MS. Most of the employees were going to work at Google in CA from MS is Washington. I believe enforcing no compete clauses are impossible to enforce across state lines.

 

Also, just because a company has you sign one of these doesn't mean the law will enforce it. There are limits as to what is considered reasonable. It's usually 1 year.

 

Also, you may want to reference an episode of "The Jetson's" where George Jetson was hired away from "Stanley Sprockets" by direct galactic competitor "Cogswell Cogs". I believe Stanley Sprockets put up a fuss and eventually hired George back, even though George was fired in the first place.

 

I'm not sure how reliable that episode is in documenting this legal situation.