I recently joined Enterprise as a management trainee at the Crawley branch. Having served for over ten years in the British Navy, I have found that many of the skills and experiences that I gained in my military service career have helped me in my current role and will also help me in the future.
Many character traits essential for an armed forces career are also important for Enterprise. One of these is having pride in yourself and your appearance, as you are the face of the company, so being well groomed and dressed at all times is very important. When a customer sees that you take pride in yourself, it gives them confidence in you and Enterprise.
Teamwork is of vital importance; you are relied on to do your job and you rely on other team members to complete their tasks on time and in an efficient manner to keep the wheels of the company turning. You need to easily adapt to different work situations every day, quickly and productively. You also have to work with a wide range of personalities – so bonding as a team makes the efficiency of the branch stand out above the crowd.
As in military service, planning and preparation increases your performance. On a busy day at your branch, you will be multi-tasking, sales, marketing, customer service, bringing customers to the branch, returning customers to their homes, preparing vehicles for hire, making reservations and this is all before lunch!
So by planning your day, being organised, having all the tasks in order and following the scheduled plan that is set out in the morning is very important for the day to run smoothly and efficiently. As they say, follow the six P’s: ‘prior planning and preparation prevents poor performance’. This was also true of my previous job.
There will be days that you might have to work late, unforeseen events do happen, and customer service is the core of our business. Being flexible and having a good work ethic are seen as positive traits.
So, since I started my career with Enterprise, I have found that my military background and training has helped me adapt easily to this type of employment. If you are a service leaver or have a military background I would thoroughly recommend considering a career with Enterprise. It has been a very rewarding and satisfying experience for me so far, thanks – in no small part – to the fact that Enterprise recognise the transferrable skills that the armed forces teach its staff. So why not browse our graduate jobs? We have over 400 branches across the UK, so there’s bound to be a graduate management job near you.