Great comment. A couple questions I have, because you seem like you like your work:
1. Can you start your own project?
2. If so, how do you get funding and build a team for it?
3. If you start a project and move to another company, can you take your funding and project and team with you?
4. If you leave your job, are you able to take a position at a company that competes with your old company?
5. Do you decide your work schedule? How many days a week do you work?
6. Do you own what you create on company time? Does your company own what you create on your time?
The answers to these questions were my biggest concern in making the choice. The most important one is the last one, where I found clauses in my industry employment contracts purporting to own all of my thoughts. Such terms were set in stone; either sign or the offer would be rescinded. I’m wondering if similar contracts are found in your country.
Hi! Yes I can answer. To tell you more about the company, it started as a software consultancy by an informatics professor and a senior research scientist (computer science). They have been pushing more and more into R&D consulting and internal research.
1. Yes. When I started at the company I proposed a project and the company decided to fund it internally. There are other people in the company with internal projects (like there is a nuclear medicine group) as well but I guess most people work for customers. But this is definitely possible. Since we are a consulting group, internal projects don't often pay as well as customer projects, but people are motivated for different reasons.
2. The CEO and CSO (chief science officer) met and decided on a budget for me. That budget includes money for buying my hours for the project and travel, visiting colleagues, and conferences. Since it funds me, basically, and I am working on a team with people outside of the company, I didn't need to build a team for it. However, building teams internally like this would be expected in the future based on conversations with the CSO. Also I really am looking forward to building internal teams in the future so I hope it will happen.
3. I cannot take internally funded projects and the team with me unless the new company decided that they were going to buy the hours of the team I guess. That being said see the comment about FOSS in answer 6.
4. I didn't sign a non-compete anything, so I would assume there is no issue here.
5. Yes, my work schedule is completely decided by me except for team meetings, etc. I work 5 days a week but I don't always work 5 days a week. The company encourages this and we have ski and climbing slack channels for people to plan stuff like that before, during, or after normal working hours.
6. I think it depends on what I am creating. Our company believes in FOSS, so everyone who is building software internally does so with that in mind. Not all customers believe that though. If I am producing research, I am allowed and expected to publish it in journals which means, essentially, I own the research in the sense that it would matter to an academic. If I produce a result so profound that we could develop a product around it and bring it to market to all become rather wealthy, then we would do so and perhaps embargo results in a paper until the product is released. I'm not sure that would really matter that much in my case.
I think the company does own some of what I do and think about. It's only fair that if I come up with an idea under company time they get first dibs. Even Woz had to ask Hewlett-Packard if they wanted the Apple ii before he could sell it himself.
1. Can you start your own project?
2. If so, how do you get funding and build a team for it?
3. If you start a project and move to another company, can you take your funding and project and team with you?
4. If you leave your job, are you able to take a position at a company that competes with your old company?
5. Do you decide your work schedule? How many days a week do you work?
6. Do you own what you create on company time? Does your company own what you create on your time?
The answers to these questions were my biggest concern in making the choice. The most important one is the last one, where I found clauses in my industry employment contracts purporting to own all of my thoughts. Such terms were set in stone; either sign or the offer would be rescinded. I’m wondering if similar contracts are found in your country.