Pros
The team I work with is absolutely stellar, and I'm fortunate to have an outstanding manager who treats employees like humans, and manages them as individuals. This appears to be relatively unique within the company. He is not rewarded by corporate for this approach, though, to say the least. The model is excellent - not only for generating sales, but for keeping the candidates at the forefront. While it is the clients who pay our fees, the candidates are our "product," and we want to keep them happy. We never lose sight of the fact that we are working with people, not inanimate objects, and communication is a key value in the company. It's a very fun, fast-paced environment, where every day is different. We meet the most incredible people on the planet, and become experts in staffing, our regional markets, and positions/industries.
Cons
The pay is absolutely abysmal. The base salary is the lowest in the industry. Commission on temp placements is 5%, no matter how much you do (unless you are one of the consistent superstars who has the ability to renegotiate your salary). The commission on perm is slightly better but still below industry standards - it's tiered starting at 10%, but tops out at 35% (though it is uncapped). The benefits are embarrassingly bad. Most of my coworkers don't even get insurance through the company because it's so expensive and the coverage is so awful. PTO doesn't roll over, and it's a "use it or lose it" setup, for the few days per year people get. The technology is even worse. We have Microsoft Office 2000 in my branch. Our email is down for a couple of days every few months. Our phones go down every few months. We recently had phone problems for an ENTIRE WEEK. Our router fails intermittently. It's amazing we are as profitable as we are with the technological failures of this company. The technological problems are so bad, and so systemic, I've considered quitting several times solely because of them. All of these problems stem from the company founder, Bernie Howroyd, being the cheapest human being on the planet. His miserliness is legendary, and significantly holds the company back. A minor point aside from the lack of adequate technology, benefits, etc., but the company also doesn't do charitable giving/matching. Bernie's ongoing involvement in the daily operations of the company is a con as well, because he is rather out of touch with the market, industry trends, and (sometimes it seems) the world. He gets a wild hair every few months and then everyone in the company must shift priorities to make him happy. When we are doing so much (running a full desk), focusing on the one thing he has decided is most important this month comes at the expense of everything else we must do. The ridiculous contests he comes up with are stupidly complex and non-lucrative to the point where nobody wants to participate. He's also pretty inappropriate fairly often, especially with female employees, and nobody ever calls him on it because he is this cultlike figure and to oppose him would be to rock the boat. If you don't want to become a manager, there's not much room for professional growth. If you're a non-selling employee, there is NO place to go but into a sales position. Finally, the company frowns on social media use (even blocking access to such sites at work), despite it being a terrific way to recruit and advertise. The company is stuck in the year 2000, and while not much about the basics of the company has or should have changed since then (we are focused on understanding the needs of another), the technology has, and we need to be able to embrace that.