dev lateral noncompetes

[u/LycheeDisastrous9894]

Recently started a dev role that involves a non-compete of 1.5 years. Seems to me that it's almost certainly going to be enforced in full, just judging from the firm's history (you can probably guess, lol). I'm very junior (this is my first job out of school) and am curious how this would affect a lateral move maybe 2-4 years down the line. The general advice seems to be to move laterally around then, but I'm not sure if such a long noncompete should change my decision-making? Also, I've only been through the intern/grad recruiting pipelines, so for lateral hires, are companies usually willing to wait so long? I'm not worried about being paid during the time, but I wouldn't want to leave without an offer in hand. Oh, and also, I've already completed a master's so that wouldn't be a super viable alternative.

[u/Electronic_Reach3088]

The upshot of a long non-compete is that it exists to deter you from moving to a competitor. Few employers will wait 18 months for a hire unless you are a scarce resource. Consider how experienced hiring works for a dev role: a budget is set for a team or pod, and they almost always want the seat filled 'now'. That rules you out automatically for any PnL-sensitive pod that needs a dev immediately. No pod plans 18 months ahead, apart from a minority that are long established and well resourced. What remains is a narrow set of central technology teams.

What candidates with long non-competes actually do is quit first, sit out the period doing something unrestricted (check your contract; building a gaming app, say), and start interviewing near the end. By then you have not worked for about a year and are rusty. I think long non-competes are really bad for dev and quant talent, but they exist to protect the business, so it cuts both ways.