Great job right out of college, but don't bother staying until you're a Branch Manager
Pros
- this job will teach you accountability, if nothing else. you can't bullsh*t around here. you can't be late. you can't half-a$$ it. it's all or nothing and it will teach you how to be a valuable team player. - anyone else's definition of hard work will become a joke to you after this. you'll feel superior because a 12-hour day washing cars, shaking hands, marketing, selling, making rental dreams come true, etc. will be the norm. no one will be able to say they work harder than you. no one. - everyone is on the same wavelength: young, educated, personable. if you like to drink yourself senseless on the weekends and work your ass off during the week, this is the place for you. work hard and play hard: truer words have never been spoken. - everyone wants you to get promoted. management cannot get promoted unless they help promote their own direct reports. it's a good system. - you will learn the basic business structure. how to read and interpret an income statement, how to keep customers/clients/vendors happy, how to motivate a team against all odds, all of these for 12 hours a day (!), these are not things you can learn in a classroom at business school.
Cons
- the pay. number 1. it never gets better unless you work in another department. don't listen to what anyone tells you. - the responsibility. the thing about enterprise is, you really are running your own business. as a branch manager, you unlock the doors in the morning, weather a sh*tstorm for 12 hours, then lock up again. you take the good with the bad, but unlike a real business owner, you don't reap the benefits of actually owning your own business. at erac, you have all the responsibility and a small percentage of the reward. plus, you have to pay for previous managers' mistakes if they affected the numbers of the branch you inherited. - work/life balance. get this out of your head. you either have a life and suck at enterprise, or you don't have a life and succeed at enterprise. - the customers. you can move up to area manager, a level 3 position, but will still spend saturdays washing cars and having customers scream obscenities at you. - it's degrading. you've worked hard through college, you know you're bright and talented, but when people hear you work for enterprise, it's almost like you told them you have an STD. they feel bad for you, they're embarrassed for you, they almost don't want to be around you for fear it's contagious. plus, sometimes customers think you're an idiot. i've had customers ask me why someone like me didn't go to college. imagine the look on her face when i told her i had a degree from a top UC.