Pros
Provided me with an opportunity to enter this vertical without any experience. Provided me with the ability to drastically change my earnings potential. Has, so far, provided many opportunities for advancement. It is a work environment that, by design, rewards those who give it their all. An interesting side affect is that those who don't try very hard or cause problems end up with very little reward and weed themselves out. This means that those of us who produce don't have to support people who ride coattails. Family environment with lots of tenured employees and management to turn to for advice. Training, Training and more Training! Commissions!!! (I love commissions!) Base salary is decent compared to what I was making before I came here. Combined with the commissions it's generous. Plus I have opportunities to do direct placements with companys that earns me pretty good one time commissions also. Relocation opportunities. We've opened an office recently in an area that I am extremely interested in living in. I work with a lot of really cool people both inside the company and with our clients. Probably my favorite thing about working here is that I get to help people find jobs and careers. I'm not able to help everyone I meet but it is really cool when I get a call a year later from someone who gets hired on with one of our companies to thank me for getting them the opportunity. This is a really good place to work if you are self driven and don't need a lot of attention to your ego. In my branch, my coworkers are like me - "A" player types that want to succeed at all costs and don't wait for someone to tell us or show us. We have a saying around here. We're not the biggest we're just the best at what we do. When I started here at TradeSTAR I hired on as a Recruiter and moved into an Account Manager role and then into a Sr. Account Manager Role. This wasn't something I'd ever done before and I've learned a lot. I can see myself running a branch at some point. We don't see a lot of the owners but there is an open door policy and we can call them whenever we need something. This is really cool. A lot of the places I've worked in the past you never even met the owner or the board of directors. I like not being a number to them. I like that my check is affected every month by the amount of effort I put in. I don't have to ask for a raise. I just have to help more people get to work. The benefits are pretty good. I use the free healthcare option but there are two more options that cost money and are a little better plus I have access to a service that will send a nurse to the office or the house so I don't have to go to the dr. office. The 401K is matching and I have three weeks of vacation now. I love three weeks of vacation! Company and Client events. We have an awesome Christmas party and several get togethrs throughout the year as a company and then I've also had the opportunity to go with my manager to Chili Cookoffs, BBQ competitions, lunches, happy hours and stuff like that.
Cons
This is a 24/7 industry by nature. Our customers don't keep the same hours we do and sometimes I get requests right before I walk out the door to go home and have to turn the computer back on and make it happen for them. When we hire low performing people into our branch it makes it harder on the rest of us. Sometimes we wait too long to let them go I think. I believe it's because we try to give everyone a fair shot but they really mess with the cohesiveness of the office.