Why would an employee not be allowed to share techniques?

Question

Few days back, I faced two interviews.

It's obvious that they are going to ask about the different techniques I have learned. So, I gave them link of my tutorials while giving telephonic interview (Skype). In short, I explained the things using my blogs which they wanted to know.

Say for example,

Q: What challenge did you face earlier and how did you solve it ?
A: I got stuck when client insist me to have customized moviePlayer in iPhone, I came out to an solution. I have given complete brief of that technique here.

After this conversation, this was their response:

We are happy to see you active in such manner. But our company has some rules and regulations. You are not allowed to post anything regarding our project. If you are willing to obey our rules, we are happy with that and we will hire you.

I just couldn't understand why knowledge sharing is strictly prohibited?

I am fully agree that if company is developing new APIs, or new technologies I should not publicly discuss it.

But my blogs are about some techniques sharing. Why am I forced to shut down my open-source sharing if I want to join that company?

I also explained them, If no one is going to share their knowledge, how are you going to learn such things?

I gave examples like these:

• If Ray Wenderlich doesn't post about game development, how am I gonna learn game development basics for iPhone / iOS?
• If Jon Skeet is not allowed to give answer on Stack Overflow, how am I gonna learn superstitious things?

Summary :

1. Why do company think like that "Our developer share our company's details?"
2. Why do company think like that "It's their own property, If we do some research regarding development on office? " (need brief, I can elaborate more, just comment for that, I will edit question).

Edit :

Well! I am sharing techniques in small pieces & functionalities. I am not sharing whole project. Similarly, I am also doing some research work at my home & share about my technical experience. What is the reason behind interrupting someone's life. Its all about sharing the stuff that you have learned & it's strongly not about sharing companies client details or company projects.

Answer 1

Many companies are drunk on their own kool-aid and think anything they do is "proprietary knowledge" that would ruin them if it was made public, even if it's some rote or trivial nonsense. I've seen companies refer to things as trivial as a shared library of functions or some pretty CSS wrappers around controls as "trade secrets". IMO the term "intellectual property" is widely abused, and the law covers it without regard (similar to how the patent system is broken).

Personally, I would consider it a red flag. There are very few cases of something being an actual, honest-to-God trade secret (usually in actual scientific fields like medicine and chemistry) and the majority of companies don't fall into that category, even if they think they do. The way most of these companies seem to act is like Wrangler and Levis claiming that how they make jeans is some "secret recipe" even though both are made in the same factory and have different logos slapped on.

Answer 2

What is the problem with:

You are not allowed to post anything regarding our project.

Why do you think that:

[you are] forced to shut down [your] open-source sharing if [you] want to join that company?

These are not mutually exclusive.

Answer 3

They may be afraid that their competitor will gain a glimpse of the stuff they're working on by analyzing the content of their developers' blogs. Maybe they're overly paranoid about security, maybe not.

I would definitely demand additional compensation for such gag order.

Answer 4

1. I think that companies just like to play it safe when it comes to their developers. If they do not keep strict rules about information sharing, different people may take the rules to different extremes. If they amended the rule to be, "You can share techniques, but not explicit details," while you may fully understand what they mean, other employees may think it is permissible to post in their blogs about specific use cases for techniques that involve the proprietary software you're developing in the office.

2. The company is paying for your time (and likely your tools) while you are in the office. They are paying for you to research development to help their products, not other developers (and potentially competing projects).

Answer 5

In answer to this question:

I just couldn't understand why knowledge sharing is strictly prohibited?

Because that knowledge is considered intellectual property that makes the business money. Even the smallest details about a project may provide clues into how it is designed, developed, and released. These could lead to security problems, competition problems and potentially even marketing/image problems. Your blog is a personal outlet that they can't explicitly control (you control it), so they want pieces in the employment contract that control their relationship with you that allow them to at least react in a suitable manner if your "knowledge sharing" threatens to impact their bottom line.

Answer 6

In answer to

2.Why do company think like that "It's their own property, If we do some research regarding development on office? " (need brief, I can elaborate more, just comment for that, I will edit question).

It is legally their property in the United States and I suspect most other countries. They are paying you to do the research and they own the results.