Aerotek reviews

As most people say, the hours! You get to work around 7:15 - 7:30 AM because you have to be fully prepared to go for your meeting at 8 AM sharp every day. Getting prepared for that main morning meeting involves meeting with your manager, your partner recruiter, getting your goals for the day, etc. So there’s no leeway there. It’s very obvious if you’re unprepared for the meeting because everyone has to talk about their goals for the day in front of the whole office. Then you leave around 6 PM at the very earliest but seriously most nights are 7/7:30. You’re only making around 50k after the training period, so that’s means your making a really bad hourly rate when you think about it... You do make commission but it’s not super easy to attain and it’s SO unreliable and 100% based on your people showing up to work at the jobs you’ve placed them in. One day they’re out sick takes money right out of your pocket. Another con is the management/leadership. People are promoted too soon in their career into leadership roles and people ONLY start there right out of college. Most people have never managed other people before and now they’re in charge of two brand new recruiters who are starting right out of college. It’s a bad cycle. Poor leadership styles are passed down like that. Truthfully everything is more of a popularity contest (and that’s sales anyway, but it makes it a tough, cliquey environment) than anything. One of the hardest parts of the job is that (depending on what division you’re in) most of your contractors that you put to work are people who make $10 an hour and they’re completely unreliable. When they don’t show up to work, your butt is on the line. Get ready to be berated by your manager for it when you have no way to make that person go to work. I saw this with every manager, not just my own. It’s the company. They blame you for it because they have to blame someone. This happens daily. Additionally, before that 8 AM meeting I was talking about, you are also returning calls from all the people who are calling off work for the day, or you’re calling out to people who were supposed to be at work an hour ago and you’re finding out they never showed up. That brings me to another big con. Even when the day is done or it’s the weekend, you’re still working. You are forced to add your work email to your cell phone and keep a constant eye on it. You are required to call people from your cell phone at 9 at night when they get off work from their current job to make sure they’re going to their interview in the morning and are fully prepared. You are ALWAYS working. You don’t get to have a break to clear your head. You have to consistently check your email every hour or so when at home to make sure you don’t have any emails or voicemails that are letting you know something is going on with one of your contractors that you need to fix and then probably let your manager know about as well. Another con is the amount of hoops you have to jump through to get a promotion. In my office it was common that when you wanted to be promoted, you needed to meet with each manager in the office for a one on one lunch so they could tell you what they think of you (and it was never positive). I watched so many people go through it and be berated that I never cared to do it. I wanted to get as much knowledge as I could and get the heck out of there.

Where do I begin? First and foremost, Aerotek is not a "way into sales". If you are looking to get into a sales positions, this is by no means a way into the industry. The "sales" that account managers do consists of calls to the same 'x' amount of accounts, leaving voicemails that get nowhere, or taking the same clients out to lunch hoping there is a position available to work on. While the account managers continue to leave messages on the same answering machines that never result in a response, they push recruiters to set meetings at new accounts and essentially help do their job for them. Also, if you unfortunately stay with Aerotek long enough to be promoted to an account manager, enjoy the $7,000 pay cut, but they'll be sure to make you believe that "the opportunity is there". Unfortunately for most people, it isn't. Within my office, a majority of the employees, including account managers, still lived with their parents because they cannot afford to move out on their own. I don't believe that is the "opportunity" that people are looking for. Aerotek is essentially an adult daycare for recent college grads. Your day begins by showing up at 7:30am and preparing for your morning meet up with your team. In this meeting you discuss what position you are working on, and where your progress is. At 8:00M you have your whole office meet up, where you state the exact same information, but to the whole office. At this time you also set a goal for the date which you would like to have a candidate indentified and ready to interview, but if you miss this goal, don't worry you can just push the date back until you finally meet it! Following the office meeting you start calling on potential candidates that you identified the night before. That means, following your 10-12 hour work day, you go home and identify candidates that you will call the next day. After calling on candidates in the morning, you are required to take your lunch at 11:45 until 12:45. That's correct, you do not have a choice as to when you take lunch, you have a set lunch time. Also, there will be scheduled luncheons where you go over something that could have been discussed in 5 minutes, but instead they want to take up your lunch break and discuss your feelings with you as well. Following your lunch, you have another whole office meeting where you state your progress on the position you are working on. After that, you go back to calling people. You are not allowed to leave work until you have your final meet up of the day with your team. This meet up happens at whatever time the account manager decides. This means, some days you'll be there til 5:30, other days til 6:30-7:00. You do not decide when you can leave because, again, Aerotek is essentially an adult daycare and you need to be told when you can leave. You are micromanaged like no other. Not only do you have 4 meetings a day, have a set time to go to lunch, and not be able to leave until you have permission, but you will also receive countless calls throughout the day to see your progress on the position you're working on. They do not let recruiters work freely to achieve a goal, but rather check in every hour to get an update. Aerotek loves to send out congratulation emails for pointless achievements, such as obtaining a professional reference for a candidate (which is required for our job). They take every opportunity to discuss your feelings and make you drink the Aerotek Punch to ensure you stay working with the company. The commission structure is an absolute joke. in order to receive commission, you must place enough people in jobs that will result in a spread $3,000/week, which is the amount of money you make for the company. Once you reach that, you make 3% of everything over the $3,000, as in if you have $3,050 in spread, you make 3% of $50. This is a joke compared to other staffing agencies! Aerotek does give you time off, however trying to use it is extremely difficult. They will ask why you are taking off, and have no shame in asking why you may be going to a doctors appointment or what the family emergency is. All HR violations, but they don't seem to care. Finally, I will discuss what happens when you put your two weeks in. Once you are smart enough to put your two weeks in because you hopefully got a real job, the office treats you as if you betrayed them. They are upset, angry, and treat you as though you do not matter at all. I believe it's because they were not able to get out of Aerotek at an early stage, and are mad that you made it out. My account manager even typed and printed a "quote" on the topic of loyalty and hung it in his office. The immaturity was something I have never seen before. There is a lot more I can discuss about what makes Aerotek a terrible company to work for, but this should be enough for most people. By all means, do not work here!!