An employment agreement is often an opening bid in a negotiation, but developers think of it as a "sign or no deal" thing and thereby miss an opportunity to ask

An employment agreement is often an opening bid in a negotiation, but developers think of it as a "sign or no deal" thing and thereby miss an opportunity to ask for reasonable changes. I've routinely struck out parts of employment agreements that were overly broad (by crossing them out and initialing), and have only once had that even questioned. It also sends a signal that you're paying attention. I'm in California, and have dealt mostly with startups. YMMV.