Management Trainee (Industrial Placement) Review

Working at enterprise for my placement was an amazing experience, with the chance of meeting loads of new people including staff and customers, all bringing something different to your days and benefiting you massively. Everyday was different and never dull, you were busy without drowning in things to do. It was different to what i was expecting, but definitely for the better, and I have regrets about the year.

Whilst working at Enterprise, you never feel like you are being treated as an intern, everyone is on a level playing field and doing the same tasks as each other so you never feel like you are being looked down on at all. There are a lot of colleagues who i did not know whether they were grads or interns and that just shows how equal and respected everyone is treated.

It can vary branch to branch as every manager has a different style, but they all knew the more time they put into you and trained you to do the best job you can, the more it benefits them and profits the branch, so it was in their interest to train us and this definitely showed in our training and support we recieved

As with any jobs you have quieter days and and busier days, however you were never bored at all. On the quieter days all it meant is that you do more background tasks and admin that you couldnt do on the busier days. However these are often the most fun days as youre doing new tasks and ones that really benefit the branch without you knowing it, ie finance tasks or marketing to grow the branch.

As i mentioned earlier, everyone seems to be on a level playing ground and there isnt a standard hierachy, tasks are delegated out to make the day go as smoothly as possible so you could be doing the same work as your managers to help them and free up their time to focus on other tasks

Problem solving/thinking out of the box have definitely improved massively, along with adapting and thinking on the spot. this is due to the fast pace nature of the day where anything can happen and you have to take a step back and move on after a problem arises. These will all be crucial to any career in the future and are vital skills to have. My confidence has grown massively and find my self being able to speak to anyone now.

Everyone always got on so well, and you are all there to help each other out. You all bounce off each other and need each other to complete tasks so it is important to build these relationships with each other, and it was always easy to do as everyone was in the same boat.

There are regular trainings every couple of months with people at a similar stage in the placement with you, as well as a booklet to update weekly and monthly tasks to ensure you are learning the right things and exceeding expectations. The trainings are based on many areas like marketing/growth and finance, allowing you to see other aspects of the business you may not usually see or experience.

As mentioned above there are regular training sessions organised through enterprise as a whole, but there are also more in depth ones with local branches to target specific areas depending on what is needed. This included team building/social events to keep this growth going and letting you meet new people.

As there are so many areas of the companies, there is always going to be something for everyone. They encourage you to look around the business areas and speak to people about getting days in different areas to experience these and see if they are right for you. This is helped by giving you a sort of fast track application scheme depending which area it is you want to go.

Several of us interns would regularly meet up, but a lot of the time it is not just the interns, as everyone is with each other a lot of the time anyway, you build friendships with people that on arent on placements and you meet up with them too. There are many work social events too that are organised, and a nice way to spend time not thinking about work,

I was living at home with parents so only paid a small rent fee, and was used to the living cost of that area anyway. I was fortunate to live 5 minutes from the office so travel cost and time was low, as a lot of the interns did as well. There are people with longer commutes but youd get this at any job.

I work in my home town so knew what it was like anyway, plus a lot of my friends also live at home anyway so would never have an issue with socialising/going out, but as there are branches in most towns and cities there is always going to be something to do.

There were several charity days organised with fund raising opportunities, whether it was raising money or doing something for the community like helping out at a sporting event or a school or something. These varied between being a sign up event or being asked to do it, so there was never a shortage of things. There is a really big RAG department too which is nice to know the company are always giving back.