It's a good sign when a prospective employer asks you for references. It usually means you're a finalist for the job. It's often one of the last steps employers make before making the offer.
How important are those references? It varies from company to company. For many employers a weak reference may not cost you the job, but a strong one can help you nail it.
Read more...With the downturn in the economy, noncompete agreements have become more difficult to enforce. Think that means no limits? Think again.
Employee noncompete agreements prohibit employees from engaging in conduct competitive with their employers after the employment relationship terminates. In many states, such agreements have historically been the most effective way for a company to protect a company's investment in training, the development of special skills, trade secrets, confidential information and goodwill. Now, that's all changing. In recognition of our currently dismal economy and the need to permit people to work, some courts -- even in states that generally enforce noncompete agreements -- have demonstrated a reluctance to enforce these agreements.
Nonetheless, employees may find that they are no more free to pursue a new job than they were before. That is because most companies can arm themselves with several tools to achieve nearly the same protections that used to be obtained with a noncompete agreement. Given the change in the noncompete enforcement climate, many companies have already begun supplementing their noncompete agreements with such additional tools -- and technology companies are especially likely to do so.
Read more...Can signing a standard workplace document derail your career plans? Yes, says Jerry Luftman, executive director of graduate IS programs at Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, N.J. He says a former student almost lost out on a big break because he'd signed a noncompete agreement, a contract that prohibits employees from doing certain work for a set period of time following the end of their current job.
The former student had been an IT manager at a Fortune 500 company but didn't feel that he was moving up fast enough. So he accepted a higher position at another big company. But when he gave his notice, his original employer threatened to go to court to enforce the noncompete agreement he had signed when he first took the job.
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