Looks Good on the Resumé

[ExERAC656]

I just glimpsed through a post about someone saying that working for ERAC looks good on the resumé. DO NOT BELIEVE THIS LIE. Okay so it isn't a complete lie, but it isn't alltogether true.

Between leaving ERAC and getting my current job I had dozens of interviews. My experience with ERAC didn't help me get my foot in the door anymore than my experience with anyother job I have had. Truth is you can go work anywhere and get equal ammounts of service experience. Really the only case for working at ERAC looking good on a resumé would be if you went and worked for HLE, Avis, etc... and who is dumb enough to leave one rental company for another... well other than one of my old branch managers. lol! But she wasn't right in the head.

For some reason ERAC tells you this mumbo jumbo and then when you dicide to leave they fight tooth and nail to keep you from looking at other options. Six months before I left ERAC I got the urge to see what else was out there because I had been promised to grill several time, but kept getting the shaft. I had a killer resumé even without ERAC, so I posted my resumé to see what would come up. A few weeks after I posted my resumé I grilled and got a branch right away. So I forgot all about my resumé because I was not interested in leaving ERAC. 3 months after I grilled I got a phone call from my city manager who wanted me to stay late because he was driving in to talk to me. My branch was kicking ass so I thought he wanted to come offer me larger branch or take me out for a beer... however when he got there he wrote me up for having posted my resumé online. I explained to him what I wrote above. He told me I had to take it off. This just pissed me off. I asked him what business of his it was about my life outside ERAC. He said that if one of my MT's saw it online it would corrupt thier view of the "big picture". To which I told him that they would have no way of seeing it unless they subscribed as an employer. Again he told me I had to take it off. I told him I would not do it for the simple fact that it was no business of ERAC. This pissed him off, but I did have him in a tough spot. If he fired me it would be for wrongful termination, so instead he took away my bonuses until I complied.

I thought about it for a while. I called my old area manager who had left the company and asked him what I should do. He said to go into my settings in hotjobs.com and monster.com and make my resume invisible from any company that Enterprise in their name. So I did just that... called my city manager and told him I took it down and he gave me my bonuses back.

I still can't beleive that ERAC has so little confidence in themselves that they have to threaten employees that want to leave. To me it truly shows how unstable and insecure that the company is. If it were so great of a company they would encourage people to better themselves withing and without the company.

Anyway.. the moral of the story is that having you worked for ERAC on your resumé isn't a big deal.

What if you are interviewing with one of the 20% of ex-customers that were not "completely satisfied". There are LOTS of them out there. Unless the target company is KEENLY aware of, and impressed with ERAC people, then ERAC is a crapshoot on a resume imho.

[ExERAC656]

Originally Posted by Unregistered

What if you are interviewing with one of the 20% of ex-customers that were not "completely satisfied". There are LOTS of them out there. Unless the target company is KEENLY aware of, and impressed with ERAC people, then ERAC is a crapshoot on a resume imho.

Good point!

Just thought of another aspect that is purly based on economic scales.

I am not sure how many employees ERAC currently has. But lets just assume for this situation that it is in the 5,000 range. If retention is on average 65% that means that in a given year you are loosing roughly 1,750 or 145.83 employees each month. So these recruiters and HR directors for other companaies have to be aware of this and see dozens of exERAC employees resumés coming accross thier desks.

With that logic it would mean less to see ERAC on a resumé because they see so many that it isn't an impressive selling point anymore.

I think, once upon a time, it might have been lucrative, but it is almost like seeing WalMart, Starbucks, or (insert large companies name here) on a resumé.

ERAC on a resume makes you look like what you were "a rental counter monkey"....

No real industry will hire you.Those people that left ERAC and got a good job (like myself) did so because of our talents and abilities which we demonstrated during the interview process.

Dont forget that ERAC talks about a career not a job...if its experience you want then go elsewhere.All enterprise will teach you is how to wash cars!

With all due respect to the previous posters, I partially disagree that ERAC does not enhance a resume. For the HR people at other companies who do not know ERAC and what is involved in ERAC, you are correct -- it will not enhance your resume at all. But for the HR/Recruiters for other companies who know what ERAC is about and what is involved in being there and tasting success there, it will help you tremendously. For the people that 'know' ERAC, they know the hard work and sacrifice ERAC employees make each and every day, and that goes a long way in being successful in other industries. By and large ERAC employees are intelligent, they are hard workers, and they understand what it takes to be successful in the working world. Futhermore, they usually are very disciplined individuals, and above all else know how to deal with people from a variety of backgrounds. Anyone who has been promoted at ERAC exemplifies those characteristics even more. One of the reasons there is so much turnover at ERAC is because their employees are sharp, and are wanted in the job market. That's why they leave. Most employees don't quit ERAC with nothing else lined up or not having another job. And most are smart enough to parlay their success at ERAC into a better position than what they had at ERAC.

The key to all this is the successful employees at ERAC. If someone gets a job at ERAC and thinks that working there just for a month or two and not getting promoted is going to help their resume, then they are sorely mistaken. At that point other companies just see a variety of negative issues when they see your resume. The trick is to get promoted at ERAC, then look for another job. The more you get promoted, the better it looks. Understand that the 'point of no return' at ERAC is anything higher than an Area Manager. After ARM, someone at ERAC is severly overpaid for a comparable job in the open market, and they will have to take a major step back if they leave after they get promoted above ARM. But from an Area Manager on down, you can usually do better with successful ERAC experience on your resume.