In my line of work, I had extensive experience in the manufacturing and testing of high throughput, immunoassay, analytical instruments that are used in many hospitals around the world. Having this experience and knowledge, if I were to apply to Roche which is a rival company with a similar (yet inferior) instrument on the market, my Non-Compete Agreement may bar me for a period of time. This would definitely affect my chances of landing a job at Roche (because I would have to check off the box that says I am non-competing) and I would definitely have to think twice if going through all the trouble would be worth changing companies. However, I have not had the desire to switch yet so I personally cannot speak on the terms of how much they would care as Scott mentioned above. I too am also curious if anyone HAS made the switch and the trouble they had to go through both legally and timewise.