Some companies in fields where skilled employees are hard to find make signing an agreement not to compete a condition of employment  In such an agreement the employee promises not to go to work for a competing firm for a set period after leaving his or her current employer  Courts are increasingly ruling that these agreements are not binding
Yet paradoxically, for people who signed such agreements when working for competing firms, many firms are unwilling to consider hiring them during the period covered by the agreement
Many companies consider their employees' established relationships with clients and other people outside the company to be valuable company assets.