Pros
They instill a work ethic that no other company can teach you. If you are a successful recruiter here, you will be years beyond other employees at other agencies when you leave Aerotek. The harder you work, the more you make, and you are in an office filled with people who are looking to work hard. The friendships you will form here are literally what makes it worth coming to work everyday. I am still friends with many of my past coworkers, and they will be you every step of the way when you are working there and even after you leave. They promote from within. So, if you want the spotlight on you, work hard and prove yourself.
Cons
1. They are below pay standards for recruiting. You can NOT negotiate your pay, everyone comes in the same. You could have two Bachelors degrees and have the same base as someone who didn't go to school. That whole get a college degree for higher pay really doesn't apply here. Also, when it comes to spread (amount of profit you bring in a week), I brought in about 12 to 13k a week before I left. When it comes to commission, I make more than their 12/13k recruiters, and I am only 5/6k spread at my new company. You can make double almost anywhere else (if you're good, and I am good because of the work ethic taught here. I'll give them that). 2. This is a call center environment. You are held to calls and numbers. If you don't hit those numbers/don't have activity that equals people going to work and money for the office, you will be put on a performance plan and eyes will be on you. I fortunately was not one of those people, but saw recruiters with potential not get the development they needed from their Account Manager and were labelled as "bad recruiters" and pushed out. Expect to be at your desk most of the day making calls. Yes, you interview candidates, but maybe 30 minutes to an hour of your day at max. Otherwise, you're at your desk. 3. Lack of accountability within Senior Leadership. Account Managers are paid more than recruiters, and there are a handful that talk down to recruiters. Don't get me wrong, there are a few members a part of leadership that will go to the ends of Earth for his/her team and treat their recruiters as equals. I myself had a team where respect was valued. But, there are others who talk down to recruiters and don't value recruiter opinions unless someone in the "inner circle of leadership" is backing that recruiter's idea. 4. Next point, there are Managers who literally give advice and say "play the politics" and "learn to play the game." Not only that, that is the environment. No matter what, your leadership should not be giving that advice, and there should never be an inner circle/popular crowd. Good luck trying to break that in the Madison office. If you want to be in High School again and watch people go on power trips, Madison is the place (there are only a few people like this but you can only move as fast as your slowest person). 5. It's a legacy system. If you get promoted to be an Account Manager, you get two recruiters, and if those recruiters are promoted, you are successful. They want to know who your legacy is. Now, Account Managers who have been there for years and have a couple promotions under their belt automatically have their recruiters favored in the Madison office. If you are a new promotion from a huge legacy, you will get more chances to fail and mess up. I wasn't a part of a huge legacy, so if I ever became a new AM and burned through 3 recruiters in a year without any of them every having high spread, I would be on a performance plan. There are AMs there part of a huge legacy, and their mistakes get brushed under a rug. 6. HR is non-existent. You need to take your own internal harassment and appropriate work-environment modules a little more seriously.