I was part of the RPO business, which seemed to be disorganized and constantly in flux. Rarely did we receive feedback from our group leads. When we were given our annual "performance appraisals" they were laughable since they did not know me or what I did very well (the client new more about my performance than the lead). This was a theme among those working in the field. I am sure it would be different if I worked onsite with my team lead. Field team leads and managers serve dual roles to the customer and to their teams and often more customer dedicated and managing their teams are more of an afterthought. This was not a bad thing for me, as they did not get in the way of doing my job, for others it could be an issue. The only time this was an issue was when they were delivering my performance review, since they were not directly involved with my activities. The pay structure is based on contracts negotiated with the client. If you live in an expensive area and your client is in a less expensive area, you are likely to be "underpaid" for your area if you work in the field.
Overall, being a RPO recruiter is not going to be for everyone. I could see working in RPO being a difficult adjustment for those without an agency/staffing firm background if the bulk of your experience has been on the inside of the company. There are more challenges when pushing back on hiring managers, as they are the RPO's clients and you represent the RPO firm, so you find yourself standing on the edge of a knife in sticky situations. The RPO is there to make the client happy, so they are not going to readily "back you" when there are escalations.
Currently, I am an RPO Recruiter based in the RPO firms head office, so I feel that my manager has a good handle on what I am doing. However, in spite of challenges being a field RPO recruiter, I would go back to it, as working from home is a great benefit for me. So would I go back to Yoh? Yes, for a field opportunity.
