[WalMartisGreat]

It's been well over a year since I left beautiful Enterprise, a company who's right up there with disgusting Wal-Mart with their anti-union rhetoric and abysmal treatment of employees. This post brought back some hellish memories and also reminded me of how much my quality of life has improved since walking away from "chasing the dream."

I ended up at ERAC like most of you. Graduated from college, couldn't find a job in my field, got contacted by ERAC and figured, "what the hell, at least it is a job...for now." Never in my life did I imagine I would be renting (and cleaning!) cars. But there I was. I kept telling myself that eventually I would leave. That this wasn't a career. During those drives to pickup that chipper customer who just had his car rear-ended, I'd daydream about what it would be like to have a job that was related to my field and a job that I could honestly see myself in for years and years -- a career.

Face the facts. Even if you want a career in sales, ERAC is at best a temporary fix. It's money. But as many of you know, due to the work schedule it is incredibly difficult to find time for job hunting. But if you ever want to get out of there and start a real career, you have to suck it up and start making things happen -- some how, some way.

I remember once driving back from a dealership. It was a great day outside. The sun was shinning, plenty of warm weather. And then it just hit me. "What the hell am I doing with my life?" I pulled the car over to the side of the road, turned off the radio and just sat there. I was tired. I was frustrated. I was depressed. I was sick of the the absolute cluster-fuck of shoddy region organization, terrible working conditions for employees, horrible hours and incompetent upper management full of people who rode the wave of the company's (now long gone) solid '90s growth to top positions. It was at this point that I decided to spend every ounce of open time to find a better job. I knew that I had no right to complain if I wasn't at least trying to rectify my situation and get the hell out of there.

It just so happened that our branch just opened up a new satellite office. During my days manning that office by myself, I starting bringing in a laptop and with the help of a nearby wifi signal, I started redoing my resume (spun my ERAC experience and custom "Taylor-ed" (LOL!) it to each different company/job I sent inquiries to) and sent out open cover letters to lots of companies that I spent time researching. I would do this during all my downtime and then continue when I got home. After a week or so I started getting some responses. Even companies I never heard back from when I was job hunting right after college. Then interviews followed. I tried to put interviews on the same day, then just called out sick. For 2 interviews I lied and said I had a doctor's appointment in the middle of the day. Long story short, within 2-3 weeks after that infamous day where I pulled the rental car over to the side of the road and devised my escape, I had a job offer with a great company which I quickly accepted! The only downside was that I couldn't start there for another 6 weeks.

I told absolutely nobody that I would be leaving in 6 weeks. Nobody even knew of my active job hunting. Having a great new job lined up made those last 6 weeks at ERAC a breeze. No CDW? No problem! Looking for an SUV? All out! No corporate accounts or car sale leads? What the fuck did I care!

2 weeks out I dropped the bomb that I was leaving and it felt GREAT! It was one of the few times I had a GENUINE smile on my face at ERAC.

Fast-forward to today. I have a computer science career! I LOVE my job! I work 8 hours a day! No weekends! More free time to spend with my girlfriend, go to the gym, hang out with friends and enjoy life! I make more money! We all get lunch breaks!

Take me advice. GET OUT NOW. Please.The longer you stay the more you'll have to play catch-up when you leave and enter a real career. I regret the year or 2 of my life that I wasted at Enterprise. Don't worry, the ERAC cult will find a new sucker to fill your shoes. Walk away and never look back.

Your better life is waiting!