I've been part of the process of hiring hundreds, maybe thousands of programmers over the years and had quite a few jobs myself. I'm sympathetic to the fired person here because in the financial industry, and other industries as well, giving notice can often result in a security officer escorting you back to your desk to pack your things. They'll pay you the two weeks, but you're outta there. I worked at a firm where a top guy with an international reputation and hundreds of people reporting to him got that treatment from the head of the company; the boss picked up the phone while he was sitting there and called security to walk him out--he didn't even pack up his own desk. This is common in any environment with high security. Moreover, three month is is a crazy amount of notice. Also, in thirty years, I've never heard of three moths notice. Not once, ever. Not even one month. Every agreement I've ever seen or been part of is at-will employment with two weeks notice. I've also never encountered this concept of a "No Objection Certificate" or even heard the term. Nobody in their right mind would give notice before looking for a job! It's much harder to find a job when you don't already have one. A lot of HR departments will simply discard resumes if you don't currently have a job and the majority will treat you like a second class candidate. I also find this situation strange because here in the US, there are liability issues with companies saying anything that affects a former employee's employment. I've never worked anywhere that called people who weren't given as references. If you happen to know someone at some place the person worked, you might make a personal call, sub rosa, but no HR department I've ever worked with would make such calls.