I've heard of companies asking you to sign a non-disclosure and non-compete agreement. Typically for a period of 3 years post exit from the company. But I'm surprised to learn that they now want to own everything you do even if it's done during your free time and in no way competes with their business. Maybe you should consider talking to a lawyer and find out what your civil rights and equal employment laws entitle you to in this regard.
Just make sure whatever you do on the side is truly on the side. Even if you code something up at work they may help some open source project you're interested in, recode it away from the office on your own computer.
In terms of your projects, stick to the "in no way competes with their business". This gets harder with larger companies, but after working there for any amount of time, you'll readily see which projects of yours will conflict with their business interests.
If you're worried a project might conflict, propose it as an internal research initiative. You may luck out and get to work on something you really enjoy at work.
Being concerned with the ownership of code should never prevent you from writing it. Nobody is watching, really. If someone cares enough about your stuff to try to claim it as theirs, that's a high quality problem. Write some more code -- joke's on them, the new project will be better anyway.
Not doing something because there's a vague chance it might not work or something moderately annoying might happen later on is naive. You're never going to be in a situation where nothing could conceivably go wrong. Just do something, try to make sure you're on the right side of things, and deal with problems as they arise.
You aren't even employed, so stop worrying about what your nonexistent employer will do. You're not at that bridge yet; you're not going to be able to cross it until you get there. The only real problem you have right now is that you're making excuses based on hypothetical situations instead of pursuing opportunities. Find a job that interests you and make sure your contract doesn't say that your employer owns everything you do in your off time. Problem solved. I don't know how anyone can explain that any more plainly.
If that's your problem, forget about career advice: Go see someone who can help. Talk to a professional. If you can't find one of those, call a free hotline or talk to someone you trust. As long as you don't die, you've got your whole life ahead of you to get this stuff right. There's no hurry. Do what you need to do to get through.
Then once you get better from this, then you can do all the stuff I said. Take it one step at a time — that's the only way not to get overwhelmed.
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[ 3.5 ms ] story [ 38.6 ms ] threadIn terms of your projects, stick to the "in no way competes with their business". This gets harder with larger companies, but after working there for any amount of time, you'll readily see which projects of yours will conflict with their business interests.
If you're worried a project might conflict, propose it as an internal research initiative. You may luck out and get to work on something you really enjoy at work.
You aren't even employed, so stop worrying about what your nonexistent employer will do. You're not at that bridge yet; you're not going to be able to cross it until you get there. The only real problem you have right now is that you're making excuses based on hypothetical situations instead of pursuing opportunities. Find a job that interests you and make sure your contract doesn't say that your employer owns everything you do in your off time. Problem solved. I don't know how anyone can explain that any more plainly.
Then once you get better from this, then you can do all the stuff I said. Take it one step at a time — that's the only way not to get overwhelmed.
Apart from this, you sound perfectly healthy and you'll be fine.
Get some help right away though as you should never underestimate the power of professionals to help you with this.