I’m an industrial designer in a corporate office; recently an awesome opportunity has popped up to do a little freelance work with a very high profile client. I really want to take advantage of the opportunity but their client (the one we’d be doing the work for) is in a similar industry to the one I work in every day; not a direct competitor, but close.
Advice?
how “similar” of an industry are we talking here? Mobile phone vs cordless phone? Or car vs train?
If you have doubts about it, I wouldn’t do it. It sounds risky and not worth loosing your day job over a few bones…
Deez is both right and wrong. The world is a big place, but some industries are pretty small. People move around and someone from your moonlighting client may end up at your day gig.
If you have a bad feeling about the set-up then act on it. The question I ask myself is: am I taking potential money out of my employer’s pocket. If yes - then pass.
I do a ton of freelance work as a corporate guy, but had to say no a few times because a few projects got too close to my day job’s industry.
Stay away from your own industry. I recently interviewed and I asked upfront if freelancing was okay outside of my industry. They said as long as it isn’t relating to the industry it’s fine, and he also said “It’s a small industry, chances are, if you do some work for someone else in the same industry, we’ll find out about it.” 