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Throwaway account.

I am currently in the process of applying for a new job, and have been called for interviews by several places across Western Europe (specifying the location in case it matters). As part of the interview process, in my field it is standard practice to give the interviewers a presentation of past work. This is a research field, so that means presenting the results obtained in the past and published in research journals and conferences, similar to a seminar.

Now, in my current company (UK-based) I have been giving several presentations over the years, and I have a well-tested and refined "backbone" to which I add new results every time I have to give another talk at a conference or seminar.

The issue I am facing is that I do not know whether I should use the company template (which includes logo and graphic theme) for presentations when I am applying for other jobs.

On the one hand, it makes sense since the work has been conducted at the company and it makes it recognisable. On the other hand, the company might not like that their branding is being used by an employee who is leaving, especially because I always have to get approval when giving a presentation representing the company, but in this case a) I am not representing the company, and b) I don't want my employer to know I am leaving before having a signed contract in hand.

Note: all of the information I will talk about is public domain, so there is no confidentiality issue here.

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  • Presentation of what? Projects you've done, technology you know, your CV, etc?
    – DarkCygnus ♦
    Commented Oct 21, 2021 at 17:35
  • Good point, I will specify in the text. It is mainly R&D, so basically it is a presentation of my research output (almost academic), i.e. presenting the results of my published papers
    – AnonWorker
    Commented Oct 21, 2021 at 17:39
  • 6
    The way I see it, an employee of Company X who gives a presentation of work conducted at Company X, while displaying Company X branding could reasonably be considered to be representing Company X, whether that is the intent or not.
    – Nuclear Hoagie
    Commented Oct 21, 2021 at 17:51
  • I'm not sure about UK/EU copyright law, but even if the "information" about the research is PD, the presentation format document may have some copyright (belonging to your current employer as a work-for-hire), and their logo is most likely protected by trademark. It is possible to be plagiarizing your own words if you originally wrote them for hire.
    – Theodore
    Commented Oct 21, 2021 at 17:55
  • 1
    Are you sure you have the copyright to present all those results? If you were paid to produce them then they usually belong to the employer / those who paid for the research...
    – Solar Mike
    Commented Oct 21, 2021 at 19:39

2 Answers 2

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The issue I am facing is that I do not know whether I should use the company template (which includes logo and graphic theme) for presentations when I am applying for other jobs.

My suggestion is that you don't, and that you use your own custom template for your presentations.

You could also consider making a derivative template, where you remove the branding and logo stuff, but keeping the format that has worked for you.

I am sure there are many templates that you could use to make your presentations visually appealing, without having to use the template that your current company uses.

If you use it as it is, you may well get out with it and nothing would happen, but there is still a chance this could backfire on you, and besides, it may not be the image you want to portray when interviewing (the new company will surely wonder why you are using your current company's template, logos, etc.).

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The issue I am facing is that I do not know whether I should use the company template (which includes logo and graphic theme) for presentations when I am applying for other jobs.

No.

Never use your current company's logo when applying for a job elsewhere. And do not use their distinctive branding.

Hiring managers won't like that and may think you are being lazy. (Imagine using a McDonald's logo, branding and color scheme when applying for a job at Burger King!)

Take the initiative, do a little bit of work and come up with your own branding instead.

On the one hand, it makes sense since the work has been conducted at the company and it makes it recognisable.

It's recognizable as your company's work, not your own. And it might come across as "I didn't put any effort into this presentation. Instead, I just grabbed one that already existed and am using that." That's not the impression you want to make.

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