Hi Guys,

I’m wondering what everyone’s experience is with switching employer, but still in L&D/E-Learning.

In other jobs (mainly design / advertising / marketing etc...) interview candidates usually take a portfolio of their past work.

However, given intellectual property rights and company confidentiality etc... do this mean that this is a no-no if you would like to show off a general example of e-learning you produced previously (even if you just visually show the interviewers it, and don’t allow them to take a copy, and the topic is very general / unlikely to show much company internal information.

Bringing samples of past work if something I would like to do, but not sure if anyone else has done this. I mean, if you were a journalist, you’d be able to bring along press cuttings, because the info is already in the public domain anyway.

Any ideas???

As long as you're not reproducing it, handing it out or selling it any way, simply showing a snippet it is usually not a problem (assuming there is no company-specific proprietary information within the sample you're showing). Also, as long as you're not misrepresenting yourself in any way, you should be fine. That's just a general "rule of thumb" -- if you're really concerned about specific legalities, I would speak with a lawyer.

And just general FYI -- articles in a newspaper are usually copyright protected (not public domain).

A lot depends on the company you work for. If you think it may cause problems down the road for you, maybe you could put together an eLearning demo that has nothing to do with the company you work for. Get creative and come up with eLearning material that serves as a resume without looking like one...