Thank you for your comments. I did decline the contract. When you say "it sounds shady," that would be the basis for my turning down the contract. I know I could have tried, and possibly gotten, the three terms I wanted added to the contract. I didn't view that as the determining factor. I think if you feel you have to watch your back before you even start working there, then perhaps it's not the right fit.

When I read something, whether a book, blog, article or a contract, I read between the lines. Most people don't realize they are saying much more than what they are writing on the page.

They also added four termination clauses. I'm used to seeing one or two. All contracts have a termination clause. But there seemed to be an over abundance of termination clauses. It made me think they already had termination on their mind. So they were hiring me to do a clean-up job, then after 89 days they were going to replace me with someone who would do the job for less pay. I would do the hardest clean-up work, but once that was done, they wouldn't need someone of my calibre any longer.

For me, my intuition is everything. And I've found I'm accurate about 85% of the time. I do make mistakes. But in this case, the peculiar signs seemed to be very obvious. Fortunately for me, I'm having very great success with getting job interviews.

Again, thanks for your comment.