>Your experience is extremely, curiously atypical.
The majority of programmers don't work for large companies. Many of the biggest employers employ in California, further skewing the data towards programmers not having to worry. About half of all states don't even have non-compete laws for programmers.
As such, I suspect your losing jobs by refusing to sign them is the atypical experience, not mine.
>Your resume shows you to be a perfect example of the 2nd assertion. You are a senior engineer....
I was once junior, with the same results...
>but your resume shows you took a Lead Programmer position in your very first year of full-time work.
Yep, negotiation, not experience, which is exactly my point. And I didn't take any job thrown at me, I worked carefully to move to a situation I wanted to be in. One can move themselves up career ranks much faster by learning how to sell themselves and to take risks, than by trying to follow the company playbook.
If you do what most people do, you will get the outcome most people get. To do differently, make consistent, concentrated effort to do things differently in the proper manner and time.
I've found more developers over my career are not advancing to where they want or getting what they want through lack of learning how to deal with negotiation. They too often think the rules are fixed and rewards a solely a function of their technical skill, both of which are false.
I've taught many interns at companies I've been at how to negotiate better, and many of them were able to get significant contract changes made on their very first job.
I've also have many developers ask how to move up/over, and when I recommend they take on new or harder projects as they're presented, those programmers shy away from the unknown to do what they know. Those types, fear of risk, don't move as fast or as far. I don't begrudge them, they prefer safety, but when they complain later in their career that they didn't go as far as someone that did do scary, out of comfort things, it's mostly their own choices.
>I still caution against concluding that this is how it works for everyone else as well.
I never thought it works this way for everyone, but in many cases, it's not the systems fault; it's the employees fault for not working the process smarter, and for not developing skills useful for dealing with people as much as they develop their technical skills.
Interviews are a sales process. Learning to sell is a very useful skill, at every level. I find few developers that have learned this and do it well.