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Since moving to the Boston area in the mid 90s, I have never seen an employment agreement or contract with a non-compete clause lasting after employment ends.

YMMV, but you should also be reading and negotiating these things.

I have. A friend got a job a local weekly; her contract forbid her from working for other local papers and media companies for up to a year.

Gotta love how the absence of state laws restricting what contracts between private individuals can include is described as being "the most repressive".

Ultimately these clauses are part of private, consenting employment agreements. If you don't like a non-compete clause offered by an employer (which is possible in MA since are no strong laws against it), nothing is forcing you to sign it.

Especially since it's a "suppliers market" for labor in our industry, you should be able to easily negotiate out of one if an employer tries to bring it up.

it doesnt matter where, once i tell people i wont sign NDAs or work on closed-source code, theyre no longer interested.

i'm sticking with boston though, at least it has seasons