Huge promises, Huge Turnover. Minimal pay, Minimal growth - Anonymous employee Fortitude Systems Employee Review

Below you will read the truth, not outrageous claims from a former disgruntled employee. I was quite successful here until leaving on my own terms for a better opportunity (which was relayed to the current employees as "It was a mutual decision" and "He didn't want to be a leader here anyways". Their way of saying "Even though it was his call, we're making it look like it was mutual so other employees don't leave as well and we can retain the little bit we have." Let's start with the interview process. I'll bypass the phone interview/information session and cut right to the in-person portion. You will wait in the lobby-area where the admins work, and it is in your best interest to make a good impression with them (aka flirt) because they do have a say in who is hired. Then you will meet with 5-7 recruiters and/or account managers over the course of the day in various settings (breakfast, conference rooms, lunch, etc.). That's all well and good, but as soon as they wrap up with you then they go back in the "pit" (what they call their working office) and basically give a thumbs-up or thumbs-down based off of what they thought of the individual they just interviewed. This is typically followed by 5-10 minutes of commiserating about that "internal candidates" flaws and lack of likelihood to be a "leader" and eventual "stock-holder" in the company (this seems counter-intuitive due to the fact that most of the people doing the interviewing are 22 or 23 years old). I digress. Let's move on to the "final round" of the interview process: meeting the owners. You will most certainly meet them at a bar, usually in a corner somewhere and proceed to be asked questions about your background, only to be interrupted every time you attempt to answer a question. You will have "documents" shown to you that "prove" that they have consistently been one of the fastest growing IT staffing firms in the country due to their employee growth and revenue generation...this is in fact FALSE, due to incomprehensible turnover, poor leadership, and a clientele base that most-certainly dissipates. Because only one of the owners actually calls the shots, if he doesn't like you then he will find a way to cut it short and that's all she wrote. If you're deemed worthy (usually someone that wants to be in sales, has a good personality, had decent grades, will move anywhere, and doesn't have a girlfriend), then you will receive all of the attention from the recruiters at the "post-interview Happy Hour". If you don't seem to be getting all the attention, it's likely because you're out of contention and if you really want the job, you best make a second impression on the owners at the bar where the Happy Hour takes place. From there, your chances are up to fate and hopefully minimized ridicule. As an employee, lets start with pay (because that's why we all work right?). You will be payed $34k as a recruiter. After taxes, you are looking at an annual income around $27k (since you will work anywhere between 50-60 hours a week, you are roughly making $7-8/hr and that is equivalent to a McDonald's employee salary). Considering that you must have a degree and come from some sort of collegiate athlete/fraternity background to even get hired, you are already in the top 5% of most desirable college grads to hire, yet you are paid like a burger-flipper (this also seems counter-intuitive). Let's flip this around in terms of what you produce for the company. As a recruiter, if you place a candidate for a $100k position and the fee for that placement is 20% to the client, there is $20k revenue for the company. The amount of commission you see from that placement as a recruiter....zero. Yes, that is correct. No money. Until you continuously make high-level placements of that nature and have also been the life of the party at every company function (usually 1-2 a week on top of the 50-60 hours you work) then you won't be promoted to a level of recruiter that starts getting commissions off of their placements. That period of time can take anywhere from 8-14 months. When you do reach that level, you will maybe see 5% of that commission, but it will be spread out over 6 months instead of paid up-front, so you're looking at an extra $5-10 bucks a week. Woop-ee! Speaking of money, where does all this revenue go? I mean the company does generate somewhere in the neighborhood of $8-12 million a year, in a good year. Well, it goes a few places. First, the weekly company Happy Hour. This entails 2-4 hours of your time, once a week, every week, and a bar tab that ranges between $500-600. Not bad for 20+ people right? Wrong! There are 3 active offices (DC, Chicago, and Dallas). Average that out over a year and you're looking at somewhere around $75k in bar tabs. This isn't including all of the breakfasts, lunches, and dinners that everyone expenses on a daily basis. Second, company trips. Sure, everyone likes to go on work trips. It's free travel, free food, free alcohol, and a good time with your buddies. But, when you take 2-3 a year, it sure does add up. Third, a company boat. A $60-70k investment that was intended for client entertainment and has been used for client entertainment 1-2 times over the course of 2 years. The rest is for weekend fun and drinking in the Georgetown waterfront. Sounds like fun huh? It is, but wouldn't you rather have some of that money in your pocket instead? Plus, only one of the offices gets to use it, so it was basically a play-toy for the office where the owners reside...coincidence? Fourth, getting promoted. Now you can be assigned to a territory, do high-level business development, earn commissions, and make the real money. If you are someone who gets promoted to Account Manager, you receive a $5k bonus. AWESOME! But if you leave the company within 2 years of receiving that bonus then you must pay it back in-full, regardless of how much additional revenue you generated at that level. You might as well settle down for the next 2 years and produce like crazy or else you will have to pay someone in order to leave your job (here comes that counter-intuitive piece again). One would think that if you cut all of this unnecessary spending, gave that money to your employees who drive your revenue, decreased work hours to a normal 40-50 hours a week, and didn't have these "non-mandatory" happy hours, then you could actually retain employees and grow like you state you do. Seems like a simple equation to me...AND everyone else who has left and gotten jobs making more money with an actual life outside of work. Lastly, GROWTH. Statements of being one of the Top 5 fastest growing IT staffing companies in the country. What number are you really? Considering there are upwards of 34,000 other companies, you really believe that? You have 3 offices, one of which only contains 5-10 working employees, and you have consistently had 20+ people leave each year since 2013. Company revenue is at the same number that it was at the end of 2012 and the beginning of 2013, so where's the growth? To be frank, it's a facad. You can't just hear the headline statements, you must read the fine print to get the real picture of what happens here.