Unpaid "Internship" is a Scam - Java Developer Cook Systems Employee Review

1.0
Feb 11, 2015
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

The co-workers seemed pleasant. Company has a lot of rhetoric to stand for its "values."

Cons

The scheme to become an "Employee" involves a 6-10 week course taught by untrained workers who read from a collection of worksheets one of the owner's sons wrote up in his spare time. Course is led mostly by contract workers waiting until they can be placed on a project. The Company prompts students to sign Non-Compete Clauses which are unethical and bar the potential employee from working in Tech sector, should they not be hired by Cook Systems. The entire scam is abhorrent and should be avoided at all costs. The company takes advantage of anyone desperate enough to take a crack at the course as a chance at learning Enterprise JAVA skills. Especially fond of preying on former Military trying to gain skills in the modern economy.

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5.0
Jan 20, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Great management and people to work with.

Cons

None that come to mind.

1.0
Mar 25, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

The Java Spring part of the training was good but minimal. We only learned RESTful APIs with Spring Boot.

Cons

The Angular part of the course was outdated. We started with 8 students in the cohort, 1 dropped out and 7 graduated. None of the 7 were able to be placed. I felt the curriculum was outdated in the age of AI. We only learned how to build CRUD applications.

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