Actually, thank you for posting this question. Before having to step down, the former Attorney General for New York began publicly to take a serious look at provisions like these which he felt were contrary to public policy. Despite what anyone else will tell you, big companies do seek to enforce these contracts in court from media companies to MLB. So, while this is what the lawyers drafted for them, do you want to be bound to that possibility? It depends (yes, I really hate that phrase too). A front-end developer working on a geospatial mobile app may not mind at all if his next job is working for an e-commerce site. But for someone who is pursuing a more specialized path, these terms can stifle career goals.