The study is an attempt to assess the effects of the attributes of a firm in which a trainee is initially placed on his subsequent success. While traditional methods used information gathered from the trainee, this paper employs an alternative approach--the collection of follow up data from the personnel records of the hiring companies. Sixteen of the 23 employers from whom personal data were requested cooperated. Four of the cooperating firms conducted their own on the job training (OJT) programs, the others hired from the neighboring training centers (NTC). Factors for determining and measuring success (wage, termination date, individual characteristics, etc.) were discussed. A control group was used for comparison. Some of the conclusions reached were: it appeared that trainees associated with OJT were more successful than graduates from the neighboring training centers; no significant differences were observed between the success of the graduates of NTC; trainees did better at large firms (e.g. large government contractors) than at small highly competitive industries. The approach has two advantages over traditional ones: it is less expensive and presents the possibility of yielding insight into the firm's influence in the post training experience in the labor market. (Author/PT)