On a personal note, the benefits of leaving California far outweigh any downsides. Mainly instead of being nearly 30k in credit card debt, I have about 2x that

On a personal note, the benefits of leaving California far outweigh any downsides. Mainly instead of being nearly 30k in credit card debt, I have about 2x that in savings and retirement accounts. The only non-competes which are enforceable have a narrow scope. It's not a bad idea to switch industries for a year or so anyway. Like if my last job handled shipping, and they say I can't work in the shipping industry for a year, I'll just work in a different one.