I'm thinking of leaving Amazon and have some concerns about the non-compete agreement I signed when I accepted my offer at Amazon over a year ago. The non-compete says I can't work for any of Amazon's competitors (meaning any company that offers similar products/services). Does anyone know if they actually enforce this? Recently I saw someone leave and go to Google and they wouldn't even let him put in a two week notice because they were afraid he would share confidential information.
Same concern
If you are based in California (or move there) it’s non enforceable. If you are not in California it’s unlikely they would trouble you unless you are reasonably high level exec, in a very special project, or do something dumb like download documents before you leave
I could argue that any company in existence is in someway competing with Amazon. This is starting to sound less like a me-problem and more like an "Amazon is a monopoly" type of problem.
Same concern. In AWS, do you think there is a certain level where Amazon will try to enforce a non-compete more than other levels?
Following…
The immediate-walkout is normal, we have it in Finance as well if you're going to a competitor. It's difficult to enforce non-competes legally, especially in California, because the courts have ruled that it's illegal to interfere with someone's livelihood. They can threaten, but it's generally all bark and no bite.