Portfolio Question

[QueueQueue]

I am a professional software developer of nearly 10 years who is currently looking at aggressively seeking clients for freelance work in hopes to start building side income in conjunction to income from my day job as a developer. I am hoping to hire Jr. and/or off-shore developers that I can oversee to assist in getting projects moving along as I focus more on client acquisition and marketing.

I am currently looking at how to approach building my website to better market myself and have some questions about putting my portfolio together. Throughout my career I have been fortunate enough to work with some fairly prestigious clients, however, some of them have been while I was an employee for companies. Are there any ethical (or even legal) concerns in regards to how I portray my work with these clients that I worked with as an employee? Does my work with notable clients that I did as an independent contractor have to be differentiated from the notable clients I worked with as an employee of a company?

My intention, of course, is not to mislead future clients into believing my side-gig worked directly with these companies, however, I feel like including my work with these companies will be a huge asset in acquiring clients and to simply leave it out would be a missed opportunity.

Any guidance would be really really appreciated!

Thank you

 

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[DedicatedLester]

I'm not sure, if your previous work had some stuff in finance. In the finance world, work under the employer is normally considered their work, but the skills you gain are all yours. So market that up like did XYZ skill/service at INSERT PRESTIGIOUS NAME HERE. Unless disclosed in your contract, usually independent contract work allows you to take anything you worked on and post in your portfolio. I guess to be on the save side, you could fudge up the numbers a bit to not disclose any important information from your previous clients.

Hope this helps!

 

[MJ DeMarco]

I'm thinking the work you've done under your employer is THEIR WORK so it would not appropriate to formally advertise it. However I wouldn't hesitate to mention it in conversations or emails. Of course, this is my opinion, and not a professional legal opinion.

 

[DaveC]

You'd have to look at your employment agreement, but generally companies frown upon employees taking IP, employees, or customers. Also, many times customers, especially in software/consulting have an NDA agreement not to be mentioned in public by name (competitive reasons, etc...) You can generally put whatever you want to say on your CV/resume/portfolio but I always mask the customer name from Acme Co. to Fortune 500 chemical company or whatever . In software, be careful with your side job especially if the work could be seen as a derivative or competitive with what you are doing full-time.

 

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