<prompt> Human: My friend is currently interviewing for a position with an IT company outside of Atlanta, GA, however some of the things she told me about it has warning bells going off in my head.- The company advertises that no experience is needed to work with them.- In the employee contract the company requires its employees to work for them for 3 years.- If employees break with the company in that 3 year period they have to pay back 25,000.- The company justifies the 25,000 repayment as the cost of training the employee will owe back.- Training is 14 weeks. - Trainees are not paid their salary during the 14 weeks only a 500 monthly stipend, yet they end up owing the company 25,000 after its complete.- It is unknown to me if they provide an itemized list of training costs. They have yet to provide her with one.She has been promised, Not in writing.- After training her salary will be 45k for the first year- 50k for the second year- 55k for the third year- After the 4th year it will be at least 80kMy Concerns:- This seems like a scam, can companies do this?- Is this practice legal?- Should she try negotiating the contract or just not take the job?- What tips would you all recommend for negotiating and covering her ass if she decides to go with this employer?I feel like levying a bill of 25,000 against an employee for quitting with the possibility of a lawsuit to cover ambiguous training costs is not right. I dont know any company that pushes training costs onto the employee in such a manner, and then uses it as a means to keep them in the company. The cost itself seems fabricated and it feels like they are trapping people. She has a few days to decide whether or not to go with the company.  <response>: Ive been roped into a company that does something almost exactly like this. Heres whats gonna happen: if its some entry level position, theyll teach you the basics then some Indian marketing team from elsewhere will send your resume to vendors as a Senior Developer using a fake resume with fake references. Oh, and if you fail to get a project for a few months, they can suspend paying your stipend until you do.This contract seems even worse than what Ive got. The length was half the time and the monthly stipend was much higher Does your friends company cover housing? Mine didnt., and the penalty fee was 1000 per remaining month of the contract.I couldnt find a contract for 5 months and the company said they would stop paying the stipend, and when I brought up considering quitting, they immediately stopped marketing me the next day and wanted to negotiate a payment plan behind doors. I was fortunately able to get away from the company because the fact that they do their business illegitimately means they cant really enforce it without risking going to court and have their business practices exposed. Its been almost 2 weeks and they havent said a word to me ever since I quit on a short notice, and I doubt theyll take any real legal action. I even went to a lawyer and they recommended I wait for them to even attempt legal action.Would I recommend it? Only if your friend has the capacity to bullshit her way hard enough into a 5 year position and survive there would it even be remotely considered, but the contracts terms is ridiculous even by the standards of these companies. 