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I am interviewing for a business development (BD) role and I was an Electronics/Software Engineer before.

The prospective employer notes that most of my recent experience is not relevant (teaching) but is interested in my earlier experience. My previous employer was a major player in the industry and I worked on some BD there. I had left for academia a decade ago and the old company was has been bought out twice in 5 years. It still lives on, but all of my references have left.

The interview with the senior VP went well, and to follow up they wanted a sample of my prior work in market intelligence. I dusted off some old research I had done for the first company and sent it to them, but later I realized that it had included minor bits of sensitive information (e.g old partner names and competitor intelligence like revenues).

All of his information is decades old and there was a non compete when I left for 3 years. I sent it off because I thought it was outdated stuff, but now I think I could get in trouble for it, with either my prior or prospective company. In my eagerness to move forward I neglected to sanitize the document and in hindsight I should have scrambled/blurred names.

Almost all of this info is publicly available, should one search for it regarding revenues,key partners, and time lines. Is there anything I can do to minimize the damage?

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  • No problem Larry, the only doubt I had was SVP =? senior VP but it seems it was that, welcome to The Workplace BTW :)
    – DarkCygnus ♦
    Commented Jun 20, 2018 at 16:07

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Is there anything I can do to minimize the damage?

Strictly speaking, no. You already sent the document with that information, now it's up to the events to unfold themselves.

However... given that (1) your NDA/NCA already expired several years ago and (2) almost all that info is publicly available as you say, then the damage here, if any, would be minimal.

Yes, you could have scratched or blacked-out that sensible information, or sent just the parts without such information, but that is something you will have to double check next time.

For now I suggest you try keep your options open and continue job-hunting in case this option doesn't work out

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  • Thank you @DarkCygnas for the answer. Yeah, the damage is done. If the people look at my old supervisor's portfolio on line, they will see much of the same information. I just worry because it looks like I could have leaked out sensitive information, until someone notes that the date on those documents is from 2005. Many of the companies listed in the competitive intelligence report are now out of business. In any case, the company has changed hands 2 times, and I would guess if my old employer saw it they might get irked. I don't think I'd get sued..
    – Larry O
    Commented Jun 20, 2018 at 16:06
  • @LarryO "I just worry because it looks like I could have leaked out sensitive information, until someone notes that the date on those documents is from 2005" - I think that the first things one checks on documents is the date, and afterwards you judge the information there displayed, so if someone wonders about leaking the date will dismiss their doubts.
    – DarkCygnus ♦
    Commented Jun 20, 2018 at 16:10
  • It’s one of the first things I checked, if I am going to accuse somebody, of leaking sensitive information. Obviously if I claim something I better be able to back it up
    – Donald
    Commented Jun 21, 2018 at 3:13

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