I still remember the exact moment I got my first job offer. I was sitting in a corner of the university library, the one spot where the Wi-Fi worked reliably but the heating didn’t, staring at the glowing “Congratulations!” in my inbox. After four years of caffeine abuse and last-minute exam miracles, that email felt like a badge of survival. But my celebration ended the moment I opened the attachment titled Employment Contract.pdf . Somewhere between the compensation section and the company’s mission statement, I stumbled onto a sentence that made my stomach drop: “Employee agrees not to engage in competitive activity for a period of 24 months after termination.” Two years. No competitors. At twenty-three years old, I felt like I was signing away not just a job but my entire future career. I sat there asking myself dramatic but honest questions: What if I want to change industries? What if the company isn’t a good fit? What if this contract limits me before I even begin? Instead of sp...