Intern / Management Trainee Review

I enjoyed my Internship at Enterprise Rent-A-Car massively, even before I got offered the job I was treated like one of them, everyone made you feel welcome from the start. The first 1-5 months I started at a very tough branch where we were very short staffed and his lead to 60+ hour weeks which I did not enjoy, however after speaking to my area manager we made some changes and shortly after i was moved to another local branch where I started to enjoy my work again.

I felt extremely valued by my colleagues at Enterprise Rent-A-Car, even from the management higher up, they would always take the time out to listen to ideas, criticisms, and things that you were not happy with and deal with them. This made it such a fun environment to work in as everyone was friendly to each other and were able to enjoy ourselves as well as get the work done to a high standard at the same time.

I was given a lot of support and guidance throughout my placement. This came from other placement students all the way to GM. Enterprise is very good at letting you seek guidance from whoever you like, wether it is from your branch manager or Area manager, everyone would take time out of their day to spend time with you. At Enterprise you had regular meetings with your branch and area manager and this is something that went a long way.

My placement was spilt into two different branches, My first branch was extremely busy which was good because you learn things a lot quicker however after doing some 60+ hours a week it does take it out of you, we definitely needed more staff in that branch. On the other hand my second branch was the complete opposite and seemed like two different businesses at some points, however this gave me a chance to work towards my MQI and learn other skills.

I was given a lot of responsibility early on during my placement, however it does depend on what kind of branch you are located in and what area. Being given a lot of responsibility early on suited me massively and gave me a challenge. I feel this definitely gave me a head start over other interns. After about 6 months of the placement I was given the opportunity to move branch, during this time I was able to be given the responsibility of running the whole branch, acting as a Manager for the day and seeing how exactly a manager works at Enterprise Rent-A-Car

Throughout my 12 Month Internship I developed all kinds of skills, most of these were transferable, such as communication, teamwork, Leadership, Organisation, personal confidence IT skills and negotiation skills. However we did receive a lot of other training, mostly in a classroom however some parts were practical. The skills that I developed have helped me massively during my final year especially during these COVID times where a lot of the work is now delivered online so communication and professionalism are harder show.

The Atmosphere at both of the branches I was at was extremely fun and enjoyable, even the early starts and the late finishes everyone was always having fun and we were able to talk about things outside of the work environment as well. We would often run different types of competitions in the branch as well, with weekly prizes that we all enjoyed and gave us that little push towards the end of the week.

I think the placement was well set up, especially as every year they update the management trainee folder, as this gives you a well structured view what the placement will include. There is a lot of extra training that you complete whilst on training that is really beneficial as well. You get treated the same as the other employees who are not on placement, most of the time the area managers don't even know either!

Throughout the placement we had a number of training days that were based in the classroom and were very useful and at the same time they were transferable, these included things such as being comfortable on IT systems, cyber security, people skills and many more. It was difficult to invest a lot of time into the placement students as we were so busy day-to-day, but I think the company invested a fair amount into personal development and training

I think the future employment prospects are very appealing, you can see first hand how quickly you can get promoted within the company, for example one of the branch managers was only 23 when I was there, not to mention you can go from MT to Area manager in 4 years, along with the very good commission that you can make. There are also a number of opportunities in the company, just not in daily rental.

There was a great social scene amongst fellow placement students and also most people that worked in the company, most friday's after work there would be some sort of plans, each month we had a night out with everyone in our area and a dinner which was always paid for by the company. We all had a WhatsApp group chat which made it very easy to speak to other placement students and discuss social plans.

As Enterprise has locations pretty much everywhere in the UK, I moved back home for my placement and moved back into my parents house.

The nightlife was quite good, the town centre was only about a 15 minute drive from most of the branches so it was easy to get everyone out. There was always a good selection of bars, restaurants and nightclubs.

Enterprise sponsored the LGBT event in Southampton, so it was always good fun to spend our weekends there, however there was not much other activities / sports to get involved in which was a shame.