In the early 1990s, I'd co-founded an object database company, with a standard "east-coast-style" non-compete, which among other things, granted us injunctive releif. Our top developer left to work for our main competitor. We sued, and the courts ruled basically that there is no slavery in the US and our developer had every right to earn a living doing what he knew how to do. Maybe laws have changed, and maybe it varies by industry, but my experience is that noncompetes are meaningless. BTW, I don't particularly wish they had teeth, and my company was probably not significantly harmed by the outcome. Just saying I wouldn't sweat too much about signing a noncompete.
I don't know that this is good advice. Attitudes toward noncompetes vary from state to state and probably even from judge to judge; I don't think it's a good idea to put one's career at risk from what amounts to a coin toss, even if the odds are 50/50 or even somewhat better.
