Recruit

Recruit is your basic operator when you first play the game. They are nothing special and you play as one first until you can unlock more operators. A recruit operator on the defense team will not help so much because the only nice equipment he could provide is the shield which most of the operators can wield anyway. However, when you are in the attacking side, the recruit operator actually has some use because he can equip a frag grenade and a breacher. Only a few operators can equip both equipment. Another imbalance with a defensive recruit is it having lesser fortification equipment compared to other operators (can only reinforce one wall / floor).

Recruits are the "default" operators. If a player fails to choose an operator during the planning phase, the game will choose a recruit as his / her operator.

Remember though, this is still a game of skill and teamwork, a team full of recruits will easily stomp a specialized team when the latter does not have teamwork. However, when everything else is equal, a team full of recruits will have a great disadvantage, offense or defense.