Pros
Aerotek's focus in hiring recent graduates is to train them to recruit and hopefully move them into a sales focused role. With that, they put a lot of time into training employees to be good at what they do. This company has one of the best training programs and materials available to their employees to be successful than most staffing agencies. You have the potential to make a lot of money, and you will get to meet a lot of people. You also will have the opportunity to be sent on trips for training and celebration of accomplishments, as well as be promoted into higher level positions. They also have yearly sales meetings that take place in various locations over the US and they provide food, drinks and entertainment. You also have the opportunity to make bonuses on top of the commission you already make weekly! They only promote from within for the sales manager roles. Therefore, at least you know your manager has walked in your shoes and knows what its like to do your job. I worked in more than one office in different locations, so there is definitely a difference in cultures for each office, but you get to meet so many people! And the people are great and very friendly! You will have a chance to make great friends. There are a ton of happy hours, and this can be a great thing if you enjoy hanging out after work or are new to an area and need to make new friends. Aerotek is also very involved in community events. New moms have great maternity leave benefits, and the overall employee benefits are pretty decent. They also have an annual Christmas party that is AWESOME! Getting drunk with your manager and the Director is pretty fun! Everyone is fairly young, so the culture is fun! Some managers do really care about their teams and in developing their employees. They will also take the time to help you do YOUR job because they know and understand that that is also how they will be successful. You will find any other job "easy" compared to the work at Aerotek. If you love change then Aerotek is the place for you. If you can stick it out for at least 2 years, you will be able to move into pretty much any recruiting job. They also give 3 weeks vacation to start. They put recruiters in one division so you get very knowledgeable in that division. They have recruiters that specifically cover office support and professional services, engineering, skilled trades, and oil and gas jobs. This allows the recruiters to really learn about their industry they are placed in.
Cons
Where to begin... Let's start with the hours. There is NO work/life balance. Every employee works 7:30am-6pm Monday through Friday, though you WILL find yourself at work later if a goal isn't met. And working weekends is also a requirement when those goals aren't hit. They'll SAY it's not required in some cases and required in others, but you will be sent on a guilt trip if you decide not to show up in either scenario. Aerotek is really NOT the place to work if you have a family before starting or if you want a reasonable social life. The long hours were have you burnt out and exhausted. You will also find yourself being micromanaged constantly. If you want to know what that's like, work at Aerotek. From day one, all of your activity is tracked and discussed in detail. Activity numbers include how many dials you made per day, how many interviews you held per week, how many phone interviews you conducted per day, how many reference checks you complete, how many leads you get, how many meetings you set for your sales managers, how many lunches you complete with your candidates, etc... yes, that wasn't even everything. They have 5-10 meetings per day depending on what's going on at the time, and each meeting takes up 15 minutes to over an hour of your time. Taking this much time sitting in meetings doesn't help you when you have goals to hit, which then leads to you being at work at 10am on a Saturday or until 9pm on a Friday. Oh, and can't forget the discussions in between on how to dress, what kind of shoes to wear, how much makeup to wear, the pictures at your desk, how the outfit you wore is inappropriate, but is the SAME outfit as someone else who wore it a week before, but has been with the company for 16 years and is in management. Goals are completely unrealistic too. The managers will go out and meet with clients and make promises to over deliver before even speaking to their recruiters about the things going on in the market. Anything to get a req, so their butt is covered while you struggle trying to find candidates to actually FILL the job. Managers are also fairly young since everyone was pretty much hired out of college, so maturity and professionalism levels are at an all time low! Recruiters make bottom of the barrel salaries and still years later, they are still paying those same salaries. They also get commission, but that varies all based on how busy the office is. You can work your butt off and still not get any commission because there's no business, which is the case in the industry of staffing for most companies. There are also no real career opportunities if you don't want to be in sales. If you are a recruiter who wants to stay a recruiter, you have to realize that you will not receive a drastic salary increase, and you will not receive the same incentives that the sales people receive. In the midst of making brand new friends, different offices have nothing but drama, but that's expected in most offices. Benefits are also expensive and not very good. The costs for most medical care is above average, and the deductible is high. And last, but certainly not least because this is the MOST important... the TEAM RULE. Have you ever been "carefronted?" Well welcome to Aerotek where carefrontations is not about morale or about helping someone. This is the term Aerotek gives when you confront someone in a non-confrontational way. However, THIS tactic, which they actually call the "Team Rule," has gotten totally out of control. I have never seen a company focus on having a culture that insists on giving constructive feedback, but won't take the advice of their employees. Ironic....