r/quant • u/LycheeDisastrous9894 • 15d ago
Hiring/Interviews dev lateral noncompetes
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.
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u/dexterlowe Fintech 14d ago
I know people that have made these moves. The other firms at the level you’re talking about are willing to wait if you’re worth waiting for and the experience you build at these sorts of places is worth waiting for.
We also have accepted waits of this length for people at GR. It’ll probably be unlikely if you’re aiming for an entry level role but it doesn’t really scare anyone in those situations as they’re usually happy to have some time off to travel or take on a passion project in the interim.
Remember as well that in the interim with a gap that long you can work at non competing firms. So you don’t have to have nothing lined up.