My college experience

When entering higher education, I was unsure as to what aspect of business I wanted to focus on. Through exposure to a variety of areas through my studies, I finally decided to specialise in Retail and Services Management for my degree. Since the age of 16, I had worked in a supermarket and found myself fascinated by the level of service and attention to detail that the business gave to its customers. From this experience, I came to realise that customer service was something I was extremely passionate about and wanted to pursue within my career.

What made me apply to Enterprise Rent-A-Car

Throughout my studies at Dublin Institute of Technology, I worked part-time for a large electronics retail company. After completing my degree, they promoted me to an Assistant Manager, which was a full-time role. However, although this was a huge achievement for a recent graduate, I could never see the clear career progression at this company, nor the variety of positions that could be available to me. As a result of this, I researched the best graduate schemes and that is when I came across Enterprise Rent-A-Car. When reading Enterprise’s profile, I loved how passionate the company was about customer service and their clear career progression structure, which provided plenty of training and development along the way. I instantly applied as this was everything I was looking for in a graduate job. So, after two interviews and an assessment centre I got the phone call I was hoping for and two weeks later I was sitting in the Enterprise Head Office starting my induction training.

My first 3 months

I still remember my first day as a Management Trainee at the Enterprise Branch in Dublin City Centre. I was greeted at the front door by all of the staff; I have honestly never felt so welcomed in my life. As anyone would be, I was nervous and shy when starting my graduate job at Enterprise, consistently cautious of making any mistakes. However, as soon as I started, my team were enthusiastic, encouraging and put my worries to rest. I was constantly reassured that no question was a silly one, which meant that everyone always took the time to show me how to carry out tasks and helped me with any queries I had. Alongside this, I embarked on my training program, which involved off-site and on-the-job training. Through this, I was able to gain a broader understanding of how the business operates, both operationally and financially, giving me the ability to comprehend how to run my own business and become more entrepreneurial. From this point onwards, I could not believe how quickly I progressed in such a short space of time. A month into my graduate role, I was on the same career level as my fellow colleagues and after three months I was taking responsibility of running the day to day operations of the rental branch.

Taking a different turn in to Vehicle Repair

I greatly enjoyed the time I had in the three Enterprise branches I worked in. During my time I developed a great bank of knowledge about how Enterprise operates and what it takes to make a branch profitable. But most importantly, I learnt how to demonstrate my leadership abilities in terms of employee development, customer service and operations. I cannot emphasise enough how much this experience benefited me going forward both professionally and personally. After two years in the rental side of the business, I felt like expanding my knowledge within another area of the business that I had an interest in. Enterprise pride themselves on employee development and encourage every staff member to climb the ladder in whichever department they see fit. When a position came available for Vehicle Repair Coordinator for the Ireland group, this caught my eye straight away. I have always had a keen interest in cars and the mechanics involved and here was Enterprise offering the opportunity to work in this area.

I applied for the role with the encouragement and support from my colleagues and was successful. This was a wonderful achievement and such a fantastic chance to showcase and build upon my skills and knowledge. The role I am in is exciting and one that I am considerably passionate about. Like the Management Trainee program, I am constantly learning on a daily basis as well as having the opportunity to embark on trips to the UK to undergo training and assessment days to help me progress further within my career.

Where I am now

I find it extremely inspiring and humbling to work for a global company who really do live by their founding values. One of our values, which is my personal favourite, is “Our doors are open”; ensuring our culture is inclusive and embracing the differences that make us unique. At Enterprise I can honestly say that this value is very much alive and encouraged. There have been multiple occasions throughout my Enterprise career where I have looked for guidance and support from senior members of staff and they have never hesitated to help me. It is great to see such a welcoming trait be used universally in our brand, making Enterprise such an incredible company to work for; everyone helps and looks out for one another.

Another one of Enterprise’s founding values is “We work hard… and we reward hard work”. This is something that motivates me to get to the next level of my career. During my induction with Enterprise, the benefits that come with promotions were clearly outlined. The day my manager promoted me from Vehicle Repair Coordinator to Vehicle Repair Field Supervisor was the proudest moment of my Enterprise career to date. I had reached the next level of my career.  I owe a lot of my success not only to Enterprise but to every single person who supported me throughout my career journey to help me get to where I am now.

My next move

No that I have reached where I am at today, the hunger to further progress is very much there. The next step in my career would be to reach Vehicle Repair Manager. However, before that, I would like to travel with my job. Enterprise encourages employees to relocate and travel in order to expand their training and development, which is something I have always been interested in. My manager and I have discussed this prospect and with his support and positivity, this is something that I hope will happen soon!

Want to be part of a company that has made a true commitment to training and developing? Search for our latest graduate jobs and internship opportunities in your area and see where we can take you on your career journey.