I don't see why it is such a bad idea to join consultants to get into the job market if you have some experience back home but not in the states and are bored of studies. For entry level QA position, I have talked to a few consultants for training/placement. Lot of them had no idea what they were doing and sounded like bunch of call-center robots. A few however sounded fairly decent. Online training and placement in preferred locality were my conditions which they agreed upon. I have a few questions which I hope your expertise/experience will help clarify.

- They brought up some contract paperworks and want them signed before marketing. They have also asked for EAD/SSN documents. Is it safe to give them my personal documents and sign the contract beforehand? Also, the form needs to be notarized. I am not sure if this is normal procedure but I will try to defer signing it as long as possible.

- There is $1K training fee which is waived if I work for 1000 hrs with them. There is also a clause that says I will need to pay a penalty fee of $5K if I leave them before 1000 hrs completion or something like that(I forgot the details). Are those legal in terms of US employment law? Is there a high risk if I have to breach the contract?

Any other suggestions would be highly appreciated as well.

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Uhi,
Kancha