Pros
If you have the wherewithal and financial resources to whether the dry spell before you do your first deal, recruiting can be very financially rewarding. If you are billing, you can write your own ticket and management pretty much lets you do what you want to do. Casual Fridays, can take off early on Friday if you had good production that week. Major problem is they say salary base but is really a draw against future commission which is only 35%. Basically you are paying yourself because every penny you take, you pay back before you get any commission. The way commission is paid out, you may collect from a client in a week or ten days but depending on when the candidate starts you have to wait a week or two before you can even CLAIM commission for the following payroll two weeks later so you won’t see a dime of commission till 3-4 weeks after the candidate has already started. Many new recruiters get frustrated with a “thrown to the wolves” mentality which takes hold when they haven’t made any money after the first 2-3 months and that draw balance is accumulating. Insurance is not available for recruiters till you hit 90 days because most new employees don’t even hit that. Yet family members of managers who are hired into full/part time administrative positions are benefit AND ESOP eligible after 30 days, get their parking paid for, come in when they want - or not at all
Cons
Cons Outdated technology- 12-15 year old applicant/client tracking system that doesn’t interface with current net based technology. Work computers are the same age. What major company doesn’t supply their employees with basic office supplies? Take a guess? Old school mentality, senior level management that hasn’t worked a desk in decades doesn’t comprehend that the evolution of recruiting has changed. Company does not reinvest in itself, little or no corporate support and heaven forbid if you call corporate without going through the local VP first. Sweat shop "call center" mentality rather than targeted business development/candidate sourcing methodology. No structured training yet every recruiter is hired to become a full life cycle recruiter. New hire training is to sit in front of 20+ year old training tapes of a long deceased recruiting guru for 2-3 days to “learn the basics” of recruiting, than given a script and list of numbers to cold call. “Can you say sink or swim baby?” Corporate HR is a joke, don’t go to HR with any issues unless you want your local VP answering whatever inquiry you had before you hear back from HR. The same person is also responsible for payroll and over the years, I have NEVER had a commission check that was correct.