Pros
Being an RA at Costar is by no means the worst thing that can happen to you -- at the end of the day, the job pays $40,000 (at least as of spring 2012) and the benefits are good. In addition, you'll meet some great coworkers -- Costar has been able to benefit from the weak economy and hire smart, engaged, interesting employees who are hard up for full-time positions in the post-recession world.
Cons
Unfortunately, the negatives of the job are so strong that you'll only stay until you land a better gig. The RA position is a (well-paid) call center job. This is obvious. No one needs to have the downside to that spelled out. Unfortunately, in addition to the job being a dead end, a lot of your trainers -- and middle management -- are also in fairly undesirable jobs (example: imagine being a trainer at a corporation with a retention rate probably below thirty percent at the one-year mark). Because this isn't exactly a sales/commercial real estate company, it is hard for even middle management to find a place to go after Costar, meaning they are stuck in a call center factory just like you are -- so even when it's a good day at work at Costar, the bleak truth is that no one wants to be there. HOWEVER -- despite these cons, "it gets better." Stick with the job for six months and you'll be able to add it to your resume, emphasize what you've learned, and land a more normal position at a company where you won't dread going into work every day. Have faith. Because of this, I don't think being an RA at Costar is a bad option for a first job out of school, or if you're looking for something stable between jobs. We all know how bad the economy is.