(by Jakob)
Having finished my internship, I want to reflect on my Blind Applying experience as a whole as well as walk you through my last stops on my journey with Enterprise. Since my previous blog, I have visited all the remaining departments in the German operations as well as traveled to the European headquarters in the UK, which is located close to London. The departments were IT, HR, Operations, Risk Management, Rental Systems and Remarketing, which is the department that sells the cars after they have been used in rental. To give you a better understanding of my work, I will delve a little deeper into the tasks I performed in the HR and Operations departments.
My main task during my time with the HR department was, together with the HR team, to develop a strategy to become an even more inclusive employee for disabled people in Germany and attract more employees with disabilities. One of Enterprise’s core values is to reach out to people of all backgrounds and create a diverse work environment that serves a wide range of customers. The implementation of the strategy would help us to live in closer alignment with our core values, as well as save money on government fines. I had the chance to participate in meetings with the German job agency, and talked to different HR representatives in the regional groups, to develop a feasible concept. During my week with HR, I also had the opportunity to participate in a one-day leadership seminar for department managers, in which the focus was on personal development and teamwork. It was exciting to see the diverse responsibilities of the HR team which reach from training to planning the future of the Enterprise workforce.
Before I went the European headquarter, I spent a fun week with Operations. Operations is, on the corporate level, a one-woman department and her team is located in the different groups spread across Germany. It was a really eventful week since operations involves topics such as the real estate of the branches, fire regulation, design of the branches and more. This meant that I joined meetings with the Frankfurt Airport about the fire safety in the parking lots as well as going to the producer of the new signs from all car rental brands owned by the Enterprise holding. I also met with a real estate agency that is proposing suitable new locations for branches throughout the country. I really enjoyed the variety of the work as well as the creativity that was needed when solving problems in fields that were completely new to me.
After the week with operations I had to leave the office a little early on Friday morning to catch the plane to London. It was great that I could spend two weekends in the city and visit some friends that I hadn’t seen in a while to celebrate Halloween together. During the week, I got to learn about the differences and similarities between the operation in the UK and Germany. This gave me the opportunity to visit some departments which Enterprise only has on a European level such as Revenue Management. Furthermore, it was great getting to know my British colleagues better when we went out for dinner and a movie after work.
After returning from the UK, it was time to gather all my notes and observations from the previous 4 months with Enterprise and work on the final presentation which I had to give on my last day. It was great to analyze my experiences, and to look for some issues that I had noticed throughout the different departments and work on solution proposals. Before presenting and discussing my solution with the corporate vice president and his team, I was nervous. It was such a relief when we ended up having a lively discussion and when I got a positive feedback for the presentation as well as for the solution proposals. It was hard to say goodbye to everyone afterwards.
After saying all my goodbyes, I reflect a little bit on the whole Blind Applying journey. When I applied I mainly did it because it was easy and fast and because I was interested in an international experience in a multinational cooperation. I didn’t expect to be selected because of the high number of applicants for so few places. Even though the application process had several steps with different assessments by different people in different cities, it was a good and fun application process that taught me a lot.
Without this program I would not have had a chance to get to know a multinational cooperation on such a deep level and to learn so much about the people who work there in different positions every day. I would have never had the chance to present my ideas and visions to the heads of the company while still in Uni. I am really thankful for the time and the knowledge I got during my time with Enterprise and happy I got to know Enterprise as an employer, which I probably wouldn’t have otherwise. I am glad that Blind Applying made this opportunity possible. I would urge everyone who is interested in a new experience to apply since even though it is competitive, the application is done quickly and there is always a chance that you’ll get picked!
