Just one thing to remember, especially if you are signing a contracting agreement: most companies will, by default, try to put all sorts of stipulations in thes

Just one thing to remember, especially if you are signing a contracting agreement: most companies will, by default, try to put all sorts of stipulations in these contracts that benefit them. A broad non-compete in a contracting agreement (especially, as another commenter noted, the ridiculousness of 10! years) is absurd, so you should always ask to have it removed. The whole point of contracting agreements is flexibility on both sides - it's insane for a company to want the flexibility in how they hire you but want you to have all the responsibilities of of being a full time employee (not like I think non-competes for FTEs should be enforceable either). Point being, many/most companies know these clauses are insane, but they see no harm in try to throw in the kitchen sink in their contracts because they know a lot of people won't push back. But for the ones the do push back (in a reasonable fashion), decent companies will say "fine".