Aside from being asked to write a positive review by management at Aerotek after I left, this review will be far from positive…
The toxic work environment makes work miserable. I personally believe in having high moral values and just being a decent human being in general. After being hired at Aerotek, I quickly learned this is not something that is valued. In your time at Aerotek, you will see your fellow recruiter’s step all over each other just to get “their” candidate hired so they in turn get “their” spread. This is just the tip of the ice berg. Recruiters will be dishonest, submit false documentation and steal just to get what they want. BUT it is a sales environment, so this isn’t too surprising.
There is no work life balance. They basically want you to work all the time. Even on the weekends and late on the weekdays. The “pit” environment is very toxic. At times, it felt like I was in high school with some of the interactions that I encountered at Aerotek. For example, I had gotten into a heated discussion with a fellow recruiter about false documentation they had done in the system. Because my “spread” was not as high as theirs, he told me “why don’t you focus on getting your spread above $1,000”. This is exactly the type of environment I wanted to get away from. The level of immaturity in that office is insane. You can also expect to be in an environment that is basically a boys club. Over 80% of the office is male.
The amount of favoritism is insane. The top 2 performers in our office were/are DATING and everyone knows about it, including management. It would be a complete joke to say it’s all “hear say”. They should be fired for this according to the corporate rules, but because they are the top 2 performers in that office, they will never be fired. You are basically untouchable if your spread is high.
During my interview, I asked how much turnover there was in the office. She said it was low and employees rarely leave. She even pointed out the fact that some recruiters have been there 5-7 years. Well in my first couple of weeks on the job, a more senior recruiter had given notice to quit (later found out they were forced out). I thought this was interesting since I was told people don’t leave that often. Throughout my year and a half at Aerotek, I counted 17 people had either quit or were fired/forced to quit or “phased out” of the company. Seeing as there are around 30 recruiters in the office, this is an extremely HIGH turnover rate. I think everyone interviewing should know that if you do not hit your numbers in your first 6 months-1 year, you can expect to be phased out. It should also be told to you during the interview that you must hit $8k in “spread” in your first year to year and a half. Telling new recruits this up front will help them understand the goals they have to hit early on.
As far as the “candidate” turnover, a lot of this is out of your control. This should also be taken into consideration if you lose a lot in spread. Management should look at this when deciding whether the recruiters are worth sticking around.
Recruiting in an agency environment can change your personality. If a recruiter jumps up in spread, they will most likely get cocky about it. For example, one recruiter in our office jumped a lot in spread and they had him give a presentation on how “spread” works to the new hires. During this presentation, he essentially bragged the entire time about how high his spread is and how much commission he was making. He didn’t go over the basics whatsoever. I could understand if he did it in a way where he was teaching the new recruiters about the basics on what spread is, where it comes from and different ways to get your spread up, but it came off as him showing off to everyone just how much money he makes. It’s rare for a recruiter with high spread to be humble.
If your “spread” is not high enough, you are seen as a no body and will be phased out – either fired or forced to quit. It is a performance based job so just keep that in mind. You are only be seen as a number to Aerotek. I can understand why this would make sense to them because the more successful you are doing in your spread, the more money Aerotek makes. You will never be rewarded on merit. You can work hard and go above and beyond, but if your spread is not high, you will never move up in your career. If you are good at sales, then this job is definitely for you but if you are just looking to get into recruiting but are not motivated by sales, then I would highly suggest going into internal recruiting. You will care more about quality over quantity in an internal recruiting environment. This is not the case at Aerotek or agency recruiting in general.
