Leaving a firm soon after joining - non-compete repercussions?

I joined a prop trading firm in NYC very recently as a full-time software engineer. However, I'm also interviewing with a company in big tech, and if they gave me an offer, I would probably jump ship and go over there. My current contract has a one-year paid non-compete, where I can't work competing businesses. To me, that would not seem to include the big tech company that I'm interviewing at, because they have nothing to do with trading.

What might happen if I received and took an offer? Do you guys think it's likely that the prop trading firm would try to stop me due to the non-compete? Would they potentially pay me full-time for the next year just so I can't then jump ship to a finance company, say, 6 months from now? I have no intention of doing that, but this seems like a strange loophole where I get a year of pay after very little work (not why I'm leaving though, I just really want this big tech job and only learned of it after signing an offer).

Also, are there any other reasons this would be a bad idea, apart from burning a bridge with this one prop trading firm?

8 Comments
 

If they choose not to enforce the non-compete, which seems likely, they would likely not pay you. However, you’d likely still be bound to the non-compete, so if you decided to join a competitor within a year after big tech they could still sue you.

 

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