In reply to you and smountcastle, here is the text verbatim: If you survive the five-month program, you’ll be offered a position on LivingSocial’s elite engineering team (18-month commitment required).
I read this as, if you TAKE the position on the elite engineering team after the five-month period, the contract is for 18-months. I don't think it is necessarily tied to the 5-month learning period.
I thought the same thing. However, it looks like this was cleared up in another thread. It seems as though you are expected to join Living Social at then end of the training. So, it's not really an "offer" after all.
"expected" doesn't necessarily mean "required". Unless one of the things they have participants sign when they agree to do the program lays out specific penalties for refusing the job offer or leaving before 18 months, they're not required to do anything. And if such a clause does exist, there absolutely should be a lower bound on the salary, benefits, etc. in that contract, so that they know they're not agreeing to work for minimum wage for 18 months.
Yes, though if you make it through the program (and offered a job at LivingSocial), you're committed to 18 months at LivingSocial. They seem like a great company so I don't think this would happen, but it does give them leverage to offer a lower salary, reduced benefits, etc.
