It's matter of treating employees like adults, says Brandon Cohen, Trilogy's Harvard recruiter. "You know how you work; get your work done," he says.

And it's a selling point to college students.

"They obviously use their culture as a competitive advantage," Albert says. "This is not a stuffy company."

It's also not a company afraid to spend money to reward its employees. After several months in the intense learning environment of TU, the company headed off to Las Vegas for the weekend.

The trip, a "corporate retreat with crap tables," Miri says, was the culmination of a summer of intense work.

Although Miri became a member of the Trilogy "L2K" club after losing two grand on the Vegas roulette wheel, he was upbeat about the trip.

"It was a blast," he says, joking about the "L2K" trophy he received back in Austin.

Although most "TU '98" graduates celebrated in Vegas, Verosub applied his TU education to cutting a deal with a French computer company--in Paris.

The commitment to morale extends beyond the walls of the company. The company has a deal with a local cab company allowing Trilogy employees to use "cab cards" to travel free anytime, anywhere in the area.

"We don't want any person from Trilogy to have any inclination to get behind the wheel when you're drinking," Cohen says.

Trilogy "cab cards" are just another example of an attempt to create an environment where employees not only work hard, but have a good time as well.

"It's a company that thinks a lot of how to make employees happy," says Karl Treen, assistant of recruiting at the Office of Career Services (OCS). "It's a nice perk and it cuts down on what employees need to worry about."

As a selling point, the tactic may be working.

"I've heard companies that are starting to look at what Trilogy is doing," Treen says.

The Downside of Small