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I have a paper that has some important work. I recently graduated and am about to work at a top 5 tech firm's AI research division. As part of the interview, they seemed really excited about this work and the results I got. They also work on something extremely similar that I improved on (their paper was considered best-in-class in the space and I'm improving on that). Part of the joining agreement was that all papers submitted post-joining would be from that institution (fairly standard in AI) but I also suspect there will be some "coauthor pressure" from people in the same division that worked on the paper I'm building on.

Is there any way for me to notate that I did most of the work myself (ie. quickly write up a rough draft of the paper and submit to arxiv before I join) or is that not advised?

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    You absolutely have to credit coauthors and institutions that support your work before you are hired; you don't have permission to sell your institution's support for a salary from someone else. The paper is "from" the authors, including those with affiliations not at your new company. The new company also does not have any intellectual property rights over work you did at another institution.
    – Bryan Krause ♦
    Nov 12 at 22:32
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    @BryanKrause I understood this as the opposite; that the OP wants to make sure those at the new institution do not get too much credit for a paper the OP is currently working on.
    – overfull hbox
    Nov 12 at 22:35
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    @BryanKrause I think overfullhbox is correct in their understanding. I am concerned that the new institution will either try to put coauthor pressure or that the paper will seem less “my work” because the main paper it’s building on is from the group I am joining
    – mb1
    Nov 12 at 22:43
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    I think it would be helpful to be explicit about your concerns in your question: what exactly are you trying to prevent from happening? Are you currently the sole author on the paper? Will you be doing work on the paper as an employee of the new company? Will any of your new coworkers be working with you on it? Why can you not simply say "no" of your concern is that someone wants to be a coauthor that hasn't contributed?
    – Bryan Krause ♦
    Nov 12 at 22:50
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    I don't know why you think doing good work for a competitor employer would be seen as not useful for hiring, the highlights of most resumes are the achievements at past employers because it says "this is the sort of thing I'll do for you". If others contribute to your work so you're not the sole author anymore, then yeah you have to work out coauthorship with them, that's not specific to this job. I doubt they hired you because a couple coworkers are trying to snag a 2nd authorship on work you already did, and if I'm wrong, won't they be just as upset by a "no" as anything else you do?
    – Bryan Krause ♦
    Nov 12 at 23:51

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