Good opportunity or been taken advantage of?

LegacyUser

Hey,

I have just finished college and am looking for a job at the moment. Recently I was contacted by a company to do some work for them at home, email it to them and see what they thought of it. This carried on for about a week and they seemed to like the stuff I was doing for them.

Finally a meeting was arranged. They made it pretty much clear from the start of the meeting that there was currently no job available for me, but later down the line their might be, when I'm more experienced, however they still wanted me to do work for them. Basically, it's like this. I do work for them (from home), this gives me experience and will look good on my CV (especially if the service becomes successful) and they get what they want for free. They say I will be introduced to some people down the line, such as potential employers down the line (they have contacts so I'm told).

Now I didn't mind doing the work for them initially, as I had no job anyway, so it gave me something to do. However after talking to some people and the family about it, concerns are creeping in. Am I been taken for a ride? I mean there is no contract, they could easily take my work and not credit me (i only have emails and the original files to prove it's my work). The work I'm doing is also very important for the service, and they seem happy with it, yet no money. And now the work they want is really eating up my time, time that I could be spending looking for a paying job.

On the flip side, the type of job I'm looking for is difficult to get into (not just due to the current climate), but due to everywhere looking for 2-4 years experience. This would look good on my CV and there is the small chance of a job down the line from it, even if it isn't in the area i wanted to work in.

My plan was to do the work for them while looking for a job. If a job came along, take it and stop working for the other company. However, like I said above, doing the work for them is leaving no time to actually be searching for a job. I haven't told them about my concerns because, like I said, it was made pretty clear that there was no job or money been offered, well not currently anyway.

So, to sum things up, I would like your opinions on whether you think this is a good opportunity to get my foot in the door or if I'm been taken advantage of.

Thanks for reading and sorry about the length

Mrs OBumble

Some more troublesome questions:

Who owns the copyright to the work you have been doing for them?

Who's legally liable if it causes some problem? (For example if you've been doing some graphic-design work, and one of the images you use ends up being copyright to someone else, or grossly offensive to some section of society.)

If you were an employee, the answers to these questions would be clear - the company. Ditto if you were a contractor - you (although you may sign over the copyright as part of your contract). However as a volunteer, the situation may be less clear-cut.

In short, if the work is taking more than, say 1 day/week for maybe 4-5 weeks, I'd say you are being taken for a ride. IMHO of course.

Hagar

Unregistered wrote: »

This would look good on my CV

Being taken advantage of will not look good on a CV.

LegacyUser

Thanks, i appreciate your opinions. I have been working for the them everyday really for the last 2 weeks or so, probably about 8 hours+ a day. I have told them that I will be cutting down on the amount of hours i will be working for them.

JustMary wrote: »

Who owns the copyright to the work you have been doing for them?

Regarding this question, I assumed (i know assumptions are the mother of all....) that I owned it, since it was done in my time, with my equipment in my own home. I used nothing provided from them only an initial concept to work off. Is there anywhere where you can find information about this?

Thanks.

2kreative

Unless you drafted up a small contact or terms of work your probably being taken advantage of. This also rings serious alarm bells to me

"They made it pretty much clear from the start of the meeting that there was currently no job available for me, but later down the line their might be, when I'm more experienced, however they still wanted me to do work for them."

What sector are you in?

Darragh29

This sounds scarily familar OP. Drop me a PM, I could nearly tell you the name of the crowd you are dealing with here, absolute shameless bullsh*tters, and are well known for it...

LegacyUser

2kreative wrote: »

Unless you drafted up a small contact or terms of work your probably being taken advantage of. This also rings serious alarm bells to me

"They made it pretty much clear from the start of the meeting that there was currently no job available for me, but later down the line their might be, when I'm more experienced, however they still wanted me to do work for them."

What sector are you in?

They have sent me a contract and NDA to sign since I last posted which I have yet to fully examine, but i believe it gives them the copyright and also they will be liable for any legal issues that could arise.

I am in the software development sector.

I have reduced the amount of hours I am doing for them dramatically and have let them know the reasons for doing this, and I think they are about to offer some money, but not much. In fact, i believe I'll still make more money on the social welfare...

[Jackass]

You're working a full time job for free.

BostonB

[Jackass] wrote: »

You're working a full time job for free.

+1

Oldest trick in the book.

homeOwner

Why dont you send them a bill for the work you have done to date and see what their response is?

Sounds like someone is taking advantage of you. Never heard anything like this before except maybe if you were applying for a programming job they might ask you to sit with one of their programmers for a day and help with a problem to see what you are like but that is a few hours not 2 weeks unpaid work.

Are there any legal guys on here that can tell you if there is some implied contract if you do work for a company that they have requested you to do and they have a responsibility to compensate you for that work?

It could be that this is 1 manager in a company taking the p1ss. I wonder does the MD/CEO and HR know that this is going on.

Lookin4Advice

Thanks all for the advice, your right about working a full time job for free.

I told them my concerns, and said that I would be unable to continue working for them due to me looking for full time paying work. As a result, they have offered me money to do about 15 hours work a week (earning the minimum wage), with a bonus at the end once the work is completed. I think this is acceptable, as there is plenty of time for me to look for a full time job, something which they are aware of.

I also expressed my concerns over copyright issues etc, and they have since given me an NDA to sign saying the company will be liable for legal issues that could arise as a result of my work.

So at the moment i'm only doing 3 hours a day for them, and they are still saying that once Im finished this, there is the possibility to move onto other areas within the company. Whether they mean this or not remains to be seen...

P.S. I posted earlier last week as unreg, but it hasn't be accepted it seems, hence this profile.