Avantages
Probably the best training in the business: nearly 70 initial hours (and rather cheap for a college-level course) before a few paid December morns/eves (if hired) to learn the prep payment and bank product paperwork. (It's not just taxes.) My class wasn't the nightmare of incompetence widely reported. Most in my district truly care about their customers, know their stuff, and work together, with some exceptions who are now toast. The right person can flourish and make the effort pay off after a few years.
Inconvénients
Whether you're that person depends on you and your situation. 'Takes a lot of homework to pass and get hired: few do. First year's hourly, just above min wage. Then you're paid hourly plus a "bonus" - the difference from as if you were paid by return complexity. You won't be doing many really hard returns the second or third year; or you may work enough hours that those few make no impact, or work where few such clients live. Reapplying isn't the obstacle; it's that qualifying by year's end takes 15 more IRS-required class hours, plus 5 for law update and "ethics," plus 4 more so Block can brag. Every year. 'Good training for just $20, but it can really screw up your summer job search/vacation and/or holidays, because one unit short and you don't work - and let the district manager wallow to HQ. This is on top of more preseason business update and rah-rah sessions (min-wage), plus required web course updates (no pay). We had quite a few this year who probably decided it wasn't all worth it, and are now barely staffed. If you wouldn't like calling prior customers (paid OTJ), consider that this week we were handed our new marketing plans, and told to write down something for each calendar day in Jan and Feb, working or not. Corporate suggestions range from the reasonable for a referral business - bringing deal fliers and biz cards to friends and places you normally go - to soliciting several days at malls, apartments, bus stops, whatever. (Try doing some of this without getting kicked out or arrested.) In my view, that was the real "annual report." Yes, we did so well last year despite TurboTax that HQ expects to own its bedrock of underpaid part-timers for two months, working the streets for free in addition to this job and their normal job and normal lives. If you're entrepreneur-ing to run your own office, great. The rest of us, outside the military, even after putting in a lot of extra free commitment, even in a recession, will eventually draw a line and say, I'm either fairly paid or I'm not. (BTW, the hiring clause restricts you from getting paid for doing taxes elsewhere for two years.) So, IMO, 'writing's on the wall. Time for new job skills.