Pros
They give the best training in the industry and the culture is great. The people make up for the low pay and long hours and will be what keeps you there. They also pay for most of your meals, as they are expensed (these will either be client breakfasts/lunches/dinners, happy hours, internal meals for team bonding, etc) and they do a lot of team building events. If you can figure out how to navigate the political waters well, you will do just fine. So - kiss up to the "leaders" that can influence decisions (aka promotions) and you can make a lot of money. Once you are in, you are set. Oh, and if you are a white male - you will also do just fine.
Cons
The pay is lower than industry standard. Leadership likes to state that they raised the salary to 50K to "invest" in the people, but don't be fooled. It's called a Labor Law that every company has to abide by, if you are a salaried employee making less than 41K, then they are required to pay you OT. Due to the long hours that this job requires, it was cheaper for them to just raise the salary. Recruiters that first join will still be paid at 30K, until they hit two non-consecutive weeks with their spread hitting at least 3K. Until then, ramen is your best friend...and your only friend, since you won't be able to afford to go out or do anything on that measly salary in Atlanta. 50K isn't that bad, you say? It's not, but you wear MULTIPLE hats here. The recruiter chair is also the sourcer, the recruiter (meaning you also negotiate rates and feedback, interviews, etc), the admin for onboarding, and continuing maintenance of your contractor. If you go into an interview, they will say that you have an opportunity to make 100K, 200K, even 300K. Whoah, sounds awesome! Well, take a good look at the board and see how many people are actually making that kind of money. Maybe 3 out of 10. It is possible, but you have to kiss the right behind, get lucky and be handed gravy accounts, or someone really helps you along the way. Now, there are those that can do it on their own, but that may take you a lot of blood, sweat and tears over many, many moons. Not that I am opposed to hard work, but why is that not distributed evenly and fairly? Again, highly political environment. It is also VERY process heavy - which means you cannot pivot as easily to your customers' needs. Process meaning - meet the candidate, do two references, and create a "sell package" (which will just be emailed over - AKA you are doing the sales person's job) in order to even submit your candidate. The reason behind this is they are selling "quality". My assumption is, they realize how much market share they were losing and thought "quality" was the answer, but many managers care more about speed to market. Truth of the matter is, all of the staffing agencies are pulling from the same pool of talent. By the time you get your candidate over, the job has already been filled or your candidate has already gotten three offers. However, in some cases this process works really well for the managers. Makes sense to do all of that for highly technical roles that recruiters may not be able to screen as effectively. The problem is, everyone must follow the same process for every client. I mentioned the culture was great there, which it is, but can be very cult-like at times. A lot of kumbayah, sit around the fire, type of environment. Works for some, doesn't work for others. I call it brainwashing, so be strong and see through the BS. Intentions start off good, but this is also a means of controlling the masses. Now this brings me to my last con: diversity. Real struggles here. Very white male dominated as you go up through the ranks. You do not see many people of color or many women in leadership roles. This is a problem. By 2040, the US will be majority minorities, so you must start putting efforts in diversifying your teams to reflect your communities and customers. They can't seem to retain any of their diverse employees.