I was told that even with the non-competing agreement, you still have chance to work for one of the competitors, if you can show that you have made efforts on job seeking and can not find a job in other companies but your company's competitors. If your company sue you, the judge either let your old company to pay your living for the prohibiting peorid of time or let you to accept the job. The problem is that no competitors would like to offer you a job if they know you have a non-competing agreement.