Your First Employment Agreement: A Guide for New CS Graduates

Congratulations on your first tech job offer. You're probably focused on the exciting parts — the salary number, the company, the team. That's totally reasonable. But there are a few documents sitting in your inbox right now that are worth an hour of careful reading before you sign. Nothing in here should scare you off a good offer. You just want to know what you're agreeing to.

The Documents You'll Sign

Your offer will likely come with several documents, not just one. Here's what to expect:

Offer letter: The one-to-two-page document with the exciting numbers — salary, start date, equity, and any signing bonus. This is the document most new grads focus on. Read it carefully, confirm the numbers match what you were told verbally, and check for signing bonus clawback language.

Employment agreement: The longer legal document — sometimes 5-15 pages — that covers your actual obligations: IP assignment, non-compete (if any), confidentiality, and dispute resolution. This is the document most new grads don't read carefully. You should.

PIIA (Proprietary Information and Inventions Agreement): Often a separate document from the main employment agreement. This one governs what intellectual property you're assigning to your employer. If you have side projects or open-source work you care about, this document directly affects you. Read more at dott.legal/blog/piia-agreement-explained.

Equity documents: If you're getting RSUs or stock options, you'll receive a grant notice and possibly a full equity plan document. The grant notice has your specific numbers; the plan document has the mechanics. For more on RSU vesting, see dott.legal/blog/rsu-vesting-employment-agreement.

Compensation and Equity: What to Look For

For entry-level tech roles, compensation is typically straightforward: a base salary, sometimes a modest signing bonus, and RSUs if you're at a large company (or options if you're at a startup).

On the equity: confirm the total grant size (number of shares), the vesting schedule, and the vesting cliff. A one-year cliff means you receive nothing until you've been there a full year. If you leave at month 11, you get zero equity. This is standard, but it's worth understanding going in.

On the signing bonus: if there's one, look for the clawback provision. It's usually in the offer letter or a separate bonus agreement. The key question: if you're laid off within the repayment window, do you have to pay it back? Look for language that excludes "termination without cause" from the clawback trigger.

The PIIA: Your Side Projects Matter

This is the most important document for engineers who have personal projects. The PIIA typically requires you to assign to your employer any inventions you create during your employment that relate to the company's business or that use company resources.

Before signing, there's almost always an exhibit called the "Prior Inventions Schedule" at the back of the PIIA. It's blank. Fill it out with any personal projects, apps, libraries, or other work you've already created that you want to keep owning. List the name, approximate date, and a brief description.

What you don't list — and that later overlaps with your employer's business — may be treated as assigned to them. Don't skip this step.

For more on how PIIAs work, see dott.legal/blog/piia-agreement-explained.

At-Will Employment: What It Means

Your employment agreement will say something like "your employment is at-will." This means either party — you or the employer — can end the employment relationship at any time, for any non-illegal reason, without owing the other party anything for the termination itself.

For a new grad, this means: they can let you go without severance (unless the agreement says otherwise), and you can resign without liability. The practical implication is that there's no contractual job security beyond whatever the company chooses to offer.

At-will doesn't mean illegal termination is okay. You still have protection against discriminatory or retaliatory termination under federal and state law. But as a baseline, employment can end without a formal reason.

Non-Compete: Does Your State Enforce It?

Many tech company employment agreements include a non-compete clause. Whether it actually matters to you depends heavily on which state you're working in.

If you're in California: the non-compete is almost certainly void and unenforceable. California Business and Professions Code Section 16600 bars post-employment non-competes as a matter of public policy. See dott.legal/blog/non-compete-california for the full breakdown.

If you're in Washington, Texas, New York, or Illinois: non-competes can be enforceable, subject to specific requirements. For new grads at entry-level salaries, income thresholds in Washington ($100k+) and Illinois ($75k+) may actually mean the non-compete is void for you — but check your specific compensation.

For most entry-level tech roles at large companies, the non-compete may be narrowly scoped to roles and companies that are direct competitors to your specific function. If you see a clause that seems to cover the entire technology industry, that's worth flagging.

One Thing Most New Grads Miss

Here's the thing people rarely tell you: your post-employment obligations — confidentiality, IP assignment, non-solicitation — survive the end of your employment even though employment is at-will. The company can let you go on a Tuesday with no notice, and you still owe them confidentiality for years and IP for everything you made during employment.

The asymmetry is stark but legal. The at-will nature of the relationship doesn't eliminate your ongoing obligations. Understanding this going in helps you make better decisions during employment: keep personal projects clearly separate, use your own equipment, and be thoughtful about what you discuss publicly.

The Bottom Line

Your first employment agreement sets the baseline for what you own, what you can say, and where you can work for years to come. The good news is that most large tech companies have reasonably standard agreements — but the details still matter. Paste your full employment package into dott.legal for a free AI risk analysis before you sign. For situations involving meaningful side projects, a non-compete with broad scope, or a signing bonus with clawback, attorney-validated review is $349 with 24-hour turnaround.