Have you ever signed a pre-contract?

I have less than a year of experience and in September I'm going to start my new job as Director of the Security Division.

It seems my future employer saw some sort of potential on me, because he wants me to sign a pre-contract so I couldn't go to any other organization. I feel right now like a football star! xD

I'm curious, have you ever needed to sign a pre-contract?

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Comments

jibbajabba

Worth reading all smallprints .. It wasn't in a precontract but the actual contract where I wasn't allowed to work for any other (similar) organization in a radios of xMiles for xMonths (to prevent poaching etc.).

Danielm7

Sounds like a non-compete, which is not a good thing. You have less than a year of IT experience and they want you to be the director of the security division? That sounds really strange to me. Do you have a bunch of other management experience that makes it make a bit more sense?

zxbane

I agree with Daniel, from looking at the certification you have listed (Just Sec+) I was a bit surprised to see your post about a Director of Security. Is this a very small organization?

yzT

The point is that here there's no security awareness and no one is providing security services.

I sent my resume to an organization just in the right moment. He replied me back saying that he has been thinking about adding security services and be the first one providing them, so he scheduled an interview. Since the first moment, his intentions was to make me responsible for all this business line, and after three meetings, that was confirmed.

The precontract is because he's leaving on vacation in August, so instead of hire me now, we start to work together in September.

Danielm7

Just make sure that the "so I can't go to any other organization" part is during the time he's on vacation until your start date, not 5 years after you leave there.

Polynomial

yzT wrote: »

The point is that here there's no security awareness and no one is providing security services.

That's not the point. The correct answer to this problem is you bring in temp to perm contractors to test the waters. The legal risk here is insane.

Something is squirrelly.

cyberguypr

Don't want to jump to conclusions because I don't have the whole picture, but based on this something doesn't add up. As others have said, limited experience then going to a Director position? Strange at least.

OP, can you enlighten us with more details on your background as well as the company's?

iBrokeIT

To answer your question: Yes, I was young and dumb enough to sign one. I signed a non-compete agreement as Tier 1 ISP Helpdesk Tech. Yes, you may laugh at that. I learned my lesson and will never sign another one again.

Turned out to be against my best interests as non-compete agreements almost always are against your interests! There was another competitor's ISP Helpdesk in town paying amount $3 more an hour. They were losing all their good techs to that company so they started requiring their techs to sign a non-compete agreement which meant you couldn't go to work their competitor until 2 years after you last day with them.

Shdwmage

You can fight most non-compete agreements, especially if they are overly restrictive. I left a job once that said I couldn't work for a similar company within 100 miles for 1 year. The labor board tossed it out.

ande0255

I'd be interested in hearing what kind of presentation you laid out during these meetings that got you in on a director level as a one man solution to security.

RHEL

Titles get thrown around left and right. Manager, director, VP, executive, engineer, etc. The title director could mean anything from leading a global department of hundreds of people to shredding all of the office papers for a 3-man start up. *shrug*

I'm guessing with one year experience, its probably closer to the latter, no offense. Not specifically shredding papers, but handling very small org level tasks.

OP -- would you mind sharing the responsibilities of the job? Company size?

jamthat

Does the pre-contract just say you won't seek other employment ONLY while he's on vacation during the month of August? That's the way I interpreted what you wrote, and in that case I think it'd be fine as long as the dates - that 1-2 month time period - are clearly defined...for example, in the VERY simplest terms:

"yzT will not seek other employment from 7/14/2014-8/31/2014, blah blah blah, this pre-contract will be in effect during the previously mentioned time period and will be void upon yzT's official start date with [company], 9/1/2014".

Someone else can chime in if I'm wrong

yzT

Jamthat according to what he said, the precontract should be something like that. Yet I haven't read it, next week likely.

To all of you that are asking about responsabilities, basically an overview would be:
- Develop a brand new business model, thinking which services we're going to provide.
- At the beginning, I'll be the only one doing the technical side. Upon expansion, I'll hire people to do these technical things so I can focus more on management.
- Organize events and conferences.

I think you're looking at it as a director in a large company, who manages the security of the company. That's not my case, you should see it as a "security savvy businessman". That's why I said director and not CSO. Most of you are thinking about it as a CSO.

colemic

Just curious, but what benefit does signing this agreement provide you? No offense, I just don't see the upside of being locked in - no protection from him coming back and just changing his mind. If you sign something like that, there needs to be something of value for you to gain from it, and to me, the promise of future employment isn't solid enough.

yzT

Well, I guess the contract will mention both things, my and his compromise.

Let's see next week what it says, but that's the reason why I asked this question, to know whether or not someone had signed a precontract before, and what was it all about.

tprice5

It all seems a bit fishy to me..

Like, you're going to come back in August and find the building empty and your retirement account empty fishy..

bryguy

jibbajabba wrote: »

Worth reading all smallprints .. It wasn't in a precontract but the actual contract where I wasn't allowed to work for any other (similar) organization in a radios of xMiles for xMonths (to prevent poaching etc.).

Beware the non-compete agreement. I had to sign one for a help desk job that paid $10/hr. Talk about overkill! It encompassed the whole 4 state area and prevented me from seeking employment for a 18 mos after terminiation of employment in the tech service support industry. Co-owner of the company was an attorney. My only saving grace was that I found a loophole- I applied for a job with a sub contractor who was based out of Boston, but whose client was in my area. Funny thing was, they still tried to go after me.