Noncompetes Are Dead—and Tech Workers Are Free to RoamNon-compete has been dead after the US Civil War when Texas tried to reintroduce slavery through non-compete and 100 years loans. I don't know of actual cases where non-compete held in court. In some jurisdiction even solicitation of non-compete is illegal similar to solicitation for prostitution. Funny that from time to time some bimbo employed for emptying the boss ball sack would try to have such a contract added to a regular contract. I usually had her write her name on the back of the contract and informed her that it is solicitation for prostitution. I received a call of apology within 24 hours ALL THE TIME but I also told her that she ruined any chances between us (like I had any).
Exclusive consultancy up to 5 years, most likely 3, do hold up. In exclusive consultancy the company will pay at least 75% of your pay while you are not working for the company to prevent you from working for a direct competitor. I've seen some exclusive consultancy that had to be renegotiated or simply voided.
What is also illegal is agreements between companies not to hire each other employees. "You'll never work in this business again" was made famous by the Hollywood movies studios. It appears that Google and Apple have such a contract. Apple is no threat to Google from a tech point of view but they could make offers of employment to key Google people. This is no fun for a company. 30-50+ years ago investment bankers raided companies and created Spin-Offs (competitors). It happens now from time to time but the companies try to hire mostly Asses that could barely do the job instead of creating partners.
NotQball OP wrote
The story would not be complete without the side effects which I personally experienced.
When I graduated the prestigious Burger Flip University the top 10% could not find jobs. The bottom 40% were employed at 6x the minimum wage before the last day of class. The rest was a mixed bag. I eventually found a workaholic which offered 2.5x minimum with an agreement that I would not leave for 1 year. He offered that to a lot of briliant people. It was not enough to pay student loans so a lot of people turned to drug dealing on the side. Nobody was ever caught and nobody got addicted. After another such experience at 4.5 x minimum I became a hired gun... which turned up OK and fited my lifestyle.