No. It has to be in your same profession. So if you are fired from being a software engineer and that's how you make a living, the company cannot prevent you fr

No. It has to be in your same profession. So if you are fired from being a software engineer and that's how you make a living, the company cannot prevent you from doing software engineering wholesale. They can't even prevent you from working in their particular vertical, unless it is highly restricted in geographic area. However, if you're a software engineer for vertical X and that's how you make your living, then they can't prevent you from taking a job in that vertical. Things change a bit if you know trade secrets.