Disclaimer: All of this relates to my firsthand experience in my region. Your mileage will probably vary.
My biggest caution: TFA is NOT seeking brilliant, adaptable problem-solvers who will assess the situation and fix it. It is seeking straight-A high-achiever types who are used to pleasing their superiors who will happily run every play out of TFA's own playbook. Don't expect to be drawing up clever solutions to the seemingly-insurmountable problems you'll face; expect to follow marching orders.
They are not upfront (at least, they weren't with me) about what is expected from a CM. An 80-hour work week is fairly common, and I can't imagine that anyone I knew was getting by on less than 60. That may not bother some - despite the poor compensation - if not for the fact that TFA drags CMs in on Saturdays once a month for PD that no one (whom I have spoken to about it) has ever found useful. I never received one useful teaching strategy from the PDs. They were a constant cause for complaint among my cohort.
Far worse still is the portfolio CMs have to create in the first six months - yes, the busiest, most difficult six months already - as teachers. This is a massive project chock-full of busywork that may or may not be related to your classroom. I have had CMs tell me on countless occasions that they felt they could be doing their jobs so much better if TFA would just get out of the way. That's a big red flag for me - and it matches my experience. I expected it to be tough, but I didn't expect it to be tough because of TFA itself.
The organization does not compensate for required travel expenses or for the five-week training institute (the latter of which is of dubious legality as you are leading a classroom as a teacher).
There is a heavily cult-like atmosphere to all TFA gatherings and at their offices. There are all the trappings of a cult - repeated buzz words that you wouldn't hear used anywhere else, plastic smiles on everybody (but an unshakeable feeling, at least for me, that you are constantly being sized up), and a strange sense that everyone knows 90% of it is absurd, but no one can safely be the one to speak up and say it.
Add to all that the extremely dubious and controversial philosophy that this organization is founded on and you have, in my opinion, a highly undesirable package.
If you're considering TFA to bolster your resume, please reconsider: if you can get into TFA, you can get in ANYWHERE already. Trust me; their screening process is highly intense. You don't need them on your resume, and qualified teachers and administrators don't need you except to save money in their budget.
If you're considering it because you're passionate about education, I strongly recommend the traditional route to you. You will keep your sanity and hopefully come out far less jaded than if you take the TFA route. Either way, though, prepare yourself for the fact that the USA has direly failed to prioritize public education and you are in for some horrors.
