Legal Question in Employment Law in California

You can be fired for any reason or no reason at all in California unless you have a contract for a specific term of employment which almost no one has, and as long as the firing is not for a prohibited reason such as your race or gender, or retaliation against union organizing. They can most certainly fire you for looking for another job, regardless of whether it is with a competitor and regardless of whether you have a non-competition agreement or not. The only question is whether it is a termination "for cause" which would keep you from collecting unemployment. Unfortunately, looking for another job, especially with a competitor, is considered just cause for firing.