> Are employees required to sign a non-compete contract? Standard answer is Yes, which is fair because it protects the company from you hanging around for a mo

> Are employees required to sign a non-compete contract? Standard answer is Yes, which is fair because it protects the company from you hanging around for a month and then moving straight to their competitors. Non-compete prevents that by requiring a cooling off period of (typically) two years. A more interesting question is if you are allowed to work on your own projects. It seems like an obvious question, but in some countries it is not. For example, EA (Electronic Arts) is in Canada and they explicitly told me at the interview that everything that I ever code while employed with them would belong to EA. And then added that I shouldn't really have time for personal projects if I am to work for EA diligently... at which point I collected my dropped jaw from the floor and left.