I already talked to a lawyer about it, and you are correct to the extent it is a breach of contract. If it ended up in court, it would only be a civil suit so I couldn't go to prison (I was worried about that). The question then is just what kind of damages they could ask for. Based on the fact that I didn't abuse any competitive position, and I did my jobs to the extent that I was promoted at all of them, I don't see any damages there. But who knows how else a well-payed lawyer could try to ruin my life.

Unless you are in a prominent, high level position, the worst case scenario is they let you go. You kept up with your work, even got promoted, and good engineers are hard to find these days. Don't draw attention to yourself.

> Don't draw attention to yourself

That's what I've been doing up to this point. Unfortunately I am naturally starting to build a name for myself as I become the only person with much knowledge on the projects I work on. Trying to start a company would obviously mean ramping that up even more.

If you can’t do the time, don’t do the crime.

As stated already, there would be no time, but maybe they would bankrupt me.