If you’re reading this you’re probably still at university, but I want you to fast forward and imagine you have finished your degree (heaven!) and you are just about to graduate from your university. Countless hours of job-hunting, applications, interviews and assessment centres await you, while at the same time an enormous amount of students with the same grade and same degree all across the country are competing for the same jobs.
So what are you going to do to differentiate yourself from other students with potential employers? I have one word for you to answer that question – a year-long placement or summer internship!
An internship is the perfect way to learn and develop new and existing skills. You’ll find yourself in new situations all the time, but more importantly you’ll be surrounded by people that can teach you the skills that you need to excel in when you finish your degree and start your first ‘proper’ job. So next time you get asked that standard interview question of “tell me a time you have used your initiative,” you’ll have a handful of experiences and skills to boast about.
Before I began my internship at Enterprise Rent-a-Car I didn’t have any experience in building and maintaining relationships with corporate businesses. This was something I was quite nervous to do and I found it very intimidating, however Enterprise pushed me out of my comfort zone and gave me the necessary training and support to overcome my fears. And now marketing to our corporate customers is something that I love doing. I have gone and found new corporate accounts and I find it so fulfilling watching the business grow as a result of my actions.
Enterprise also gives you the tools to take control of your own career progression. With your own graduate management training programme you have the flexibility to manage your tasks within your own timeframe and progress at your own pace. Having completed my graduate training programme after 10 months of employment with Enterprise I received a promotion – this is by far my proudest career moment.
I never imagined a promotion was possible within a 12 month internship, but with Enterprise it is. So not only you’ll get a year’s worth of learning, training and work experience, but make it through the programme and your CV will jump out from the crowd! Join Enterprise after you graduate, and your promotion will also give you a headstart as you’ll join having already completed your training programme.
Doing an internship with Enterprise will allow you to meet so many new people on your journey including other interns, meaning that alongside work you’ll have fun, which is – after all – one of Enterprise’s core values. Whilst on my internship I got to socialise with and meet so many new people on nights out, branch meals, mentor lunches and winter balls.
And if that’s not enough to sway your decision please remember that on your Enterprise internship you will obviously be paid – so you can wave goodbye to those budget student meals when you return to university.
So if you’re currently looking for an summer internship or year-long placement, make sure you browse all the job vacancies we have available across the UK.
