<p>My son received a degree in computer engineering this past December (flagship/GPA 3.2). Since then he’s been working a help desk job for $13.50/hr. He’s had several interviews in his field, many with top employers in our city (mostly through recruiters) but usually doesn’t get past the first or second round. He now has an offer from a contracting company who will ‘train’ him for 4 weeks and place him at a specific employer for a specific project, making twice what he makes now. He’d like to do it, as he as no internships, but the fine print indicates that if he quits within one year, he will owe them $20,000, the 'value of the training". That’s outrageous, and to me, speaks of bad faith. Is this normal?? He is essentially indentured for that time. Should he take it to boost his resume? He is a good worker and employers have really liked him, but he is not the go-getter that most parents on this board’s kids are. </p>
<p>Does your son think it is a good opportunity? Is it a good company. I have trained new graduates and it is a lot of work. What this contract company is asking for one year of your son’s service, which isn’t necessary unreasonable. Your son will be paid during that one year. He is not paying for the training if he should stay. As long as the pay is reasonable then I don’t see anything wrong with it. Even if there is no such stipulation, your son wouldn’t want to change jobs in less than one year either. </p>
<p>I know a lot of finance firms that give out sign on bonus would ask for money back if an employee should leave before one year. </p>
<p>Oldfort, thank you for the quick reply. The company is “Advanced Resources” and the training is in Java and Agile. I appreciate that training is hard work (I’ve done it before too!), but couldn’t that pay for a semester of tuition at MIT?? But your response is encouraging and if that is the norm, then okay. </p>
<p>Many firms (and the gov’t) have pay back clauses for training provided. If the 2x current pay is accurate this seems like a good way to step up that pay scale to a living wage.</p>
<p>One year is a blink of the eye.</p>
<p>I received a signing bonus when I took my present job. If I quit within TWO years, I have to give it back.</p>
<p>Erin’s Dad, I don’t know what you mean by “2x current pay”. </p>
<p>I understand and accept the concept, it’s just the amount, which he couldn’t possibly pay if somefthing unforeseen came up. </p>
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<p>“making twice what he makes now” = “2x current pay.”</p>
<p>I would make sure it’s all in writing- the specific pay and company where they expect to place him after training.</p>
<p>It’s VOLUNTARY indentured servitude. If he is unwilling to accept the terms, then he should simply not participate. </p>
<p>Can he google the program/speak w other participants to see if there have been complaints? </p>
<p>I can see why the penalty clawback is relatively high. They probably want to make it unattractive for a competitor to poach him. In my industry, poaching is rampant. Hungry competitors will pay out the clawback money. My present employer did to recruit me.</p>
<p>Is this job going to lead to a computer engineering job or is this leading him to a computer programmer job?
Everyone needs to get their foot in the door to their first real job but he needs to make sure that it’s going to lead in the right direction. I’m assuming that since his major was computer engineering not computer science that he is more interested in engineering than coding.</p>
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<p>Like what? what could make him quit before a year???</p>
<p>besides, if he is making 2x as much, have him save half of his income since he wont be used to it anyway.</p>
<p>Quick google of company reviews are pretty good…for what that is worth</p>
<p>Is he guaranteed to be in that specific job with that specific employer at that pay rate for the full year? What if the employer doesn’t like him or goes belly-up? Can the agency re-assign him to another employer at a lower rate at its discretion? What if they don’t have a placement for him for a period of time? I’d read the contract very carefully.</p>
<p>Another thing to keep in mind is that contract employees can find themselves in an uncomfortable position in a company. They aren’t really part of the organization and may be resented by regular employees who see fellow employees being replaced by them. It can be isolating (though it there is a large cadre of this agency’s employees at the company, that would help). It’s not a reason to turn down the position, but your son ought to have his eyes open about the potential workplace atmosphere. </p>
<p>Son’s first job as a software developer with a major firm trained him for 4 months then upped his salary when he was finally being productive. He has learned some computer languages on his own but typically doesn’t need them for work. It can happen that a company is stuck with an old language because switching would be horrendously expensive for either the clients or themselves if they took on the expenses of the switch (think of why the US is still stuck without the metric system). He switched jobs after two years (high turnover at his first company- but a great place for starting out) and would have had to reimburse the new company for the moving expenses if he had quit before one year. Now his job title is software engineer. His major was math and he added enough credits in comp sci for the second major- his programming was weak after graduation but the company hired him for his brains/abilities, not speed at that. It is very possible those learned skills may not be used by another company. And- if you look up software developer/engineer you will find different definitions and majors than are used by companies. I used to think software engineers had different jobs, credentials and so forth compared to developers (also not to be confused with programmers).</p>
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<p>Illness? Injury? Family emergency or crisis?</p>
<p>^^Does the contract specify that the payback will not be demanded in this kind of situations (illness, accident, etc.)? I would inquire. </p>
<p>Although I think $20,000 is a little steep, it is standard for companies to have a clause that you will forfeit your signing bonus if you quit within a certain amount of time. I think it was written into my H’s relocation package that if he left the company within 1 year of relocating we would be responsible for his relocation costs. So pretty standard. </p>
<p>But it sounds like this company is not offering a signing/relocation bonus. If anything, he could see if he could negotiate that fee. It’s definetely something worth asking about. I’m not sure if would change anything. </p>
<p>When my S hired into his company, there was a fellow hire who was extremely homesick and quit after 6 months. She never should have accepted the job as she knew she was going to hate it before she went (she was very open as to she was going to hate the location and had family and her boyfriend far away). It was a very good job in a terrible location but she should have stayed the year and I think the company would have found a way to relocate her. But I digress :). I think the company withheld her last paycheck in recompose for her signing bonus and that was that. Honestly I think both parties were happy, the job was not working out for either side.</p>
<p>One thing to ask about, is what would happen if your S was laid off from the project he would be working on. The only reason I say that is that there have been lay offs at both of the companies that my kids work at. The first people to go are the contract employees. It’s something to think about. It seems that many companies are going to contract employees. </p>
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<p>Ususlly people take temporary leave for those things. They don’t RESIGN.</p>
<p>Well, if it is a contract position, the person may not be entitled to take any time off for any reason, and absences can lead to termination - it probably sounds crazy, but even crazier stuff makes its way into employment agreements, so it makes sense to read the document prior to giving even a verbal acceptance of the conditions.
I completely agree that a year is not a long time, and it will fly by quickly. </p>