Enterprise rent a car graduate scheme..good thing or bad thing?

I approached the conversation as though I was looking for something more (which I am) and a good recruiting manager would recognise this and suggest I'm not right for the role. He continued the conversation; I expect a second interview request :/

He asked if I had any questions:
Me: what are the hours?
Him: the minimum hours are 50 a week but our priorities are our customers so there is some expectation you'd be doing 52, 53, 54 hours a week, something something blah blah expect to put in the hours to progress (gist)
Me: what is the starting salary?
Him: £20,000, and you learn on the job and progress quickly, there are "big jumps" when you progress - you can earn commission and a % of the profits. Our average assistant manager salary is £27-28k and the branch manager average is £32k+ (I think he said)
He asked me what I know about the company and i gave him a customer perspective and outlined what I thought the job entailed. He seemed happy that I "understood" (the car cleaning and collections etc) rather than disappointed I didn't note anything about the company's history, it's standing in the UK, etc.

Questions:
Me: is that basic?
Him: no, that's including commission.
Me: ok, so with a starting salary of £20k and hours of 50+ a week, forgive me for asking but doesn't that spread a little thinly over the hours?
Him: we don't expect people to stay on £20k for long, it's an entry level position... graduate entry level... And it's not designed to keep you on that amount.

He said it how it is. But graduates should expect more than £20k/50hours. I see how it would attract an untrained entry level person but the median graduate salary today is £30k (although average £19-22k?) and I have 10 years of transferable work experience. I won't take it if offered and I'll be honest as to why.

Reply 82

Original post by HarrietOrchard

I approached the conversation as though I was looking for something more (which I am) and a good recruiting manager would recognise this and suggest I'm not right for the role. He continued the conversation; I expect a second interview request :/

He asked if I had any questions:
Me: what are the hours?
Him: the minimum hours are 50 a week but our priorities are our customers so there is some expectation you'd be doing 52, 53, 54 hours a week, something something blah blah expect to put in the hours to progress (gist)
Me: what is the starting salary?
Him: £20,000, and you learn on the job and progress quickly, there are "big jumps" when you progress - you can earn commission and a % of the profits. Our average assistant manager salary is £27-28k and the branch manager average is £32k+ (I think he said)
He asked me what I know about the company and i gave him a customer perspective and outlined what I thought the job entailed. He seemed happy that I "understood" (the car cleaning and collections etc) rather than disappointed I didn't note anything about the company's history, it's standing in the UK, etc.

Questions:
Me: is that basic?
Him: no, that's including commission.
Me: ok, so with a starting salary of £20k and hours of 50+ a week, forgive me for asking but doesn't that spread a little thinly over the hours?
Him: we don't expect people to stay on £20k for long, it's an entry level position... graduate entry level... And it's not designed to keep you on that amount.

He said it how it is. But graduates should expect more than £20k/50hours. I see how it would attract an untrained entry level person but the median graduate salary today is £30k (although average £19-22k?) and I have 10 years of transferable work experience. I won't take it if offered and I'll be honest as to why.

I found it annoying that he didn't give a straight answer.
Starting salary? £20000
Hours? 50+

He justified everything as he said it, leading to me thinking he knows these things are a problem but presumably he also knows he has to "sell" the role.

Reply 83

Well, to him it's an opportunity for others wanting more - so he's hardly likely to tell an ambitious graduate they're too ambitious.

Also, top jobs in banking, tech and arguably FMCG push the graduate salaries up - the reality is around £19-£22K as suggested, and you're likely to find similar hours most places give or take 5... It's not uncommon.

Rather than waste his time, if you feel strongly that you don't want to progress, I'd recommend you email him and withdraw. There are plenty out there who would love the opportunity.

Reply 84

Of course, that's the polite thing to do, especially as he's just doing his job.

But to clarify, I wrote my message mostly to confirm what most here were saying. They are long hours for little pay, and he also seemed to confirm that the majority of entry level workers will be doing grunt work for a long time, with no real managerial learning at that stage.

Reply 85

Original post by J-SP

The median graduate salary for the U.K. is not £30k. That figure is based on the Top 100 graduate employers, so only 100 companies and those that are generally paying at the top of the market.

A closer estimate is just under £22,000 based on full time salaries only.

Understood - hence, Median, and not Average. The idea there being that it includes THE top paying jobs.

I included the average starting salary in my post.

Reply 86

Original post by J-SP

A median is an average!

All I was trying to suggest is that the £30k figure (which everyone gets when they Google "average graduate starting salary" :wink:

is not a very good average to work from where it is only an average of a group of 100 employers, rather than the 10,000s that will across the U.K.

Posted from TSR Mobile

Right, but the best figure would be a mean or mode, and I always figured average usually means mean.

Anyway, that's off topic. I understand what you're saying but I included both figures anyway.

Reply 87

Original post by J-SP

Mean averages are not necessarily the best average to use, and especially with data like this. It's why median salaries are often used rather than mean or mode (the £30k figure is also a median figure).

I just like the clarify on posts like this as people read it as fact and without context. It helps perpetuate really bad myths out there about the graduate job market.

Posted from TSR Mobile

> median salary £30k
> median salary clearly includes the top salaries
> mean salary £19-22k
> median salary misleading
> median is best average to use

Ok you're being confusing yourself now. This conversation is going in circles.

HEY people just so you know you can ignore that £30,000 median salary because that's only for the top 100 companies and you don't want to aspire to them! Instead the salary you should hope for is £22,000! Yay.

I'm done with this conversation, unless it turns back to the Enterprise role, so please just move on.

Reply 88

Original post by HarrietOrchard

> median salary £30k
> median salary clearly includes the top salaries
> mean salary £19-22k
> median salary misleading
> median is best average to use

Ok you're being confusing yourself now. This conversation is going in circles.

HEY people just so you know you can ignore that £30,000 median salary because that's only for the top 100 companies and you don't want to aspire to them! Instead the salary you should hope for is £22,000! Yay.

I'm done with this conversation, unless it turns back to the Enterprise role, so please just move on.

What an outburst :lol:

for having '10 years transferable work experience', I'd imagine you were a bit older ergo had the sense to be a bit more mature.

Reply 89

And to be even more pedantic than J-SP, there are plenty sub-£25K employers on the Times 100.

The research is compiled from university students on which organization's are most attractive to them...

Reply 90

Original post by pmc:producer

What an outburst :lol:

for having '10 years transferable work experience', I'd imagine you were a bit older ergo had the sense to be a bit more mature.

I'm sorry, but I felt we were going round in circles on what seemed like a minor point, and instead of clarifying the issue, it was causing more confusion when my original post included it as more of a reference point to what Enterprise were offering than anything else.

J-SP wanted to clarify what was included in that data set. Fine, but we were getting nowhere by talking past each other.

I'd hardly call asking us to move on an outburst. But to each their own.

Reply 91

Original post by HarrietOrchard

I'm sorry, but I felt we were going round in circles on what seemed like a minor point, and instead of clarifying the issue, it was causing more confusion when my original post included it as more of a reference point to what Enterprise were offering than anything else.

J-SP wanted to clarify what was included in that data set. Fine, but we were getting nowhere by talking past each other.

I'd hardly call asking us to move on an outburst. But to each their own.

Passive aggressive too? Nice.

Reply 92

However you want to read it, I suppose.

It did contain an apology but I'm sure you'd prefer to overlook that and focus instead on my obvious immaturity.

Reply 93

Original post by HarrietOrchard

However you want to read it, I suppose.

It did contain an apology but I'm sure you'd prefer to overlook that and focus instead on my obvious immaturity.

I couldn't care in any case... I'm just wondering why you haven't emailed to withdraw from the process yet?

Reply 94

Original post by pmc:producer

I couldn't care in any case... I'm just wondering why you haven't emailed to withdraw from the process yet?

Thanks for the prompt - all done.

Reply 95

Ragnar123

Some serious horror stories on this thread haha don't listen to them. I have recently started the scheme and am a month in and I am really impressed. They have an excellent company culture and the branch I work at is very professionally run. It is busy, but if you have a good work ethic and keep a positive mindset then you will learn so much and get promoted quickly. The busy days are fine as it makes It go quicker and there is no boring downtime. The people I work with are all really nice and care about your development. With regard to working hours, it is 50 per week, generally get in at 7.45 and leave for 18.10, so a pretty long day but plenty of other jobs expect you to stay later and don't pay you for it. I have only had to wash 1 car so far in a suit, as they employ agency valeters and drivers so the majority of the time you wont need to do that. A fair amount of time is spent out picking up and dropping off customers (probably 2.5 - 3 hours a day) but it is good as gives you abit of variation and you get to chat to all different types of people. A lot of branches are very differently run, some better than others, and I suppose mine is one of the better ones. We have to work 6 days one week, and 4 days the next. With one night shift a week (until 10pm), so every other week you work all weekend but then you get the next weekend off, plus a day off in the week. I really think a lot of people on this thread are lazy students who stroll out of Uni thinking they will walk into a highly paid position that is easy, but the reality is that even as a graduate you still have to start at the bottom. So suck it up and work hard! Enterprise really rewards you when you get promoted within a year, and puts you on a profit sharing scheme to do with the performance of your branch, so this encourages you to think entrepreneurial and run the branch like your business. I would encourage any graduate to look into this scheme.

Reply 96