July 29, 2026 • 23 mins
This week I'm joined by Kaiyan who shares how he secured a placement year with Enterprise Mobility, the skills he gained, and how it led to a graduate job offer.
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(00:00):
They did let me make mistakes.
And I honestly, I did.
To be fair, I did make quite a few,
but I think that's a good thingbecause I've learned from them.
So in the same environmentor in similar environments in the future,
I'm going to be in a place where I've,I've, I've been there and I've done that.
Right.
So, Hello and welcome back to Future You.
(00:21):
The Early Careers and Student advicepodcast brought to you by prospects.
So I'm an I.
I studied psychologyat University of East Anglia.
I've been this is my fourth yearnow in my first a four year course.
So this is my final year
in my third year,I did a placement at Enterprise Mobility.
(00:42):
So how did you find that placement?
Yeah.
So, I stumbled across it,
so everyI think it was month or one of the two,
we'd have a bulletinthat our careers team could.
Career central would kind of publish or
an email out to all the placementstudents, essentially.
(01:02):
And every week I'd go through them.
A lot of the time it was, as I say,I love them with finance related
one necessarily, related to my degreeor my interests.
But on one occasion,
that the enterprise mobilityadvertising advertisement came up,
I took to the boxes,you know, it was based in London.
(01:25):
I'm from London.
And so that was obviously a big thing.I didn't want to move out.
And that's a lot of moneyand a lot of commitment.
So that was a big box.
And I kind of applied.
It was a little bitout of my comfort zone.
It wasn't psychology related.
But I tried to kind of link
my skills to the role and,and finally I bought the job.
and what was the application process like?
(01:46):
Was it just a simple fill in a formor was there a long process?
Yeah.
So I found I found that when, when I wasapplying for like the huge corporate
kind of giants, I guess you could saythere was that kind of eight,
seven, eight sage application process,you know, centers and etc.
and whereas enterprise was a lot more kindof streamlined in the sense that I had
(02:08):
obviously the initial application,which was, you know, background CV,
can't actually rememberif there was a cover letter, but
I think there was a lot of applicationsI would do cover letters for.
So most likely, and then onceyou obviously they blew through that,
they get back to you.
And then the next stageis a phone interview.
(02:29):
So you'll get a call from one ofthe talent acquisition teams, Do members.
They have a quick discussion review
kind of gauge, you know, whyyou're looking for that particular role.
Why do you think need to suit that role?
And some of an informal interview,I'd say.
And there was a very like casualconversation I didn't throw to pressured.
And then once obviouslythey've looked into that and they thought
(02:51):
that you're suitable for the role, youthen get asked to do a branch visit.
So that is quite a unique, quite
a unique approachfrom the enterprise mobility perspective.
Because what it is is you obviouslyhave your standard interface interview,
which you have at the branch,but before that interview you have, well,
it depends on the day, on the business,
(03:12):
the employees or the managers busyness.
But for example, in my case,I had I think,
I think close to two hours of timeto just speak
with the team,get to know what they kind of shadow them.
I guess you could say
get get familiar with what kind of thingsI'd be involved in and exposed to.
And then obviously after the two hoursI had an interview and
(03:34):
and that was a yes or no from Wow. Okay.
And you mentioned you'restudying in at UVA in Norwich.
So you're based in Norwich,but the internship placement is in London.
And that was okay for youbecause did you intend to just sort of
like move back to London, staywith family, friends, that sort of thing?
Yeah.
So I'm from London
(03:55):
and I grew up in Londonand I was in my family houses in London.
And whilstI would have been open to a placement
in Norwich, I think I probably would,would have been open to that.
The actual advertisementwas for a particular branch in London.
So, obviously living at home is a bitmore.
Was really less financially, financiallyand streaming than having to pay
(04:20):
for another year of accommodationin Absolutely.
And generally do you thinkwhen you're looking for an internship.
So enterprisemobility luckily had one in London
and they have quite a few acrossthe country don't they.
So depending on where you're studyingor where you're from you're
(04:41):
probably going to find one nearby.
Do you know of peoplethat really push themselves out of their
not even comfort zone, but like literalzone in order to pursue a placement?
Yeah.
Yeah, yeah, I,I know friends from my year group
who did a placement year as wellin different degrees, but also my own.
And, and they did move out.
(05:04):
They moved out to places
that weren't even particularly big arealike big cities and as well.
So I have a friend that moved somewherein Gloucestershire,
which is was quite a quaint town.
Yeah, exactly. And
purely for the purpose of the Yeah.
And I don't thinkhe has any regrets. Right.
(05:25):
So he just sort of moved out,
rented somewhere for the year,and then came back to finish the degree.
Exactly. Yeah.
I think he was with,he lived with his team or people
relevant to the role,I believe, which I think often
especially the bigger employerswill have something like that set up.
And even if they don't have, you know,kind of a house sharing structure,
(05:47):
they will have,
you know, people you can contact, websitesyou can reach out to and such.
Yeah, absolutely.
I would I would definitely if you'relooking for a placement or an internship,
I wouldn't like say no straight awayjust because of the location.
Obviously in enterprise mobility,from their perspective,
you know, it's a nationaland national operation.
(06:07):
So whilst my advertisement was for London,
if, they deemed that I was,
suitable for the
role after, you know, that whole processand I had I'm sure
if I had a conversation with them,they'd actively find another branch
that is ready to take me on in,in a more suitable area.
(06:29):
Yeah, absolutely.
And were you paid for your placement.
So my person was paid.
Thank you very,very for, for the opportunity
for it to have been paidespecially from a psychology background.
It's not as great actually.
And I think if I was to do
an NHSor a non-paid placement or internship,
I think I'd be a lot more hesitantto move out 100%.
(06:53):
There's obviouslyyou'd have to do a part time job
because a lot of the none of the unpaidplacements are three days a week.
They're not actually full time.
Understandably, because, you know,they can't expect you to stay afloat
if it's full time and it's unpaid,just doesn't go hand in hand.
So what they expect is,you could take on a part
time role hospitality,retail or something like that.
(07:17):
And that would normally pay
for your kind of, like food and bills and stuff.
But taken on that,
alongwith having to pay for a accommodation,
I don't have
any personal experience in it, butI can see how it can be quite difficult
to manage. Yeah, absolutely.
So you were in your internship?
(07:38):
In your placement for a year.
What does the day to day look like?
Were you just making the coffeesor were you doing well?
I actually I'd say oh, there's obviously
a lot of great, great things to take outfrom my placement, enterprise mobility.
But one of the things I really dolike to tell my colleagues or anyone
that asks, really, is enterprise really dothrow you in the deep end?
(08:01):
And I think in my opinion,that was the best thing possible
because you have one year right whereyou're you're, as I said at the beginning,
the main focus of that of metaking out that year in the first place.
I forget about enterprise,but just solely taking out that yet
was so that I can gain experience now.
You know,
if I was to be making coffees, therewouldn't be any experience to be gained.
(08:23):
You know, I can make a coffee anywhere.
So, yeah, sounds for your question.
I was thrown into the deep end.
Obviously,
when I say thrown into the deep end, they,they they were appreciative of the fact
that I didn't have any experiencein their systems, in the software
and in certain things,but they kind of guided me through that.
But they didn't hold my hand.
(08:43):
They didn't spoon feed me kind of thing.
They did let me make mistakes.
And I honestly, I did.
To be fair, I did make quite a few,
but I think that's a good thingbecause I've learned from them.
So in the same environmentor in similar environments in the future,
I'm going to be in a place where I've,I've, I've been there and I've done that.
Right.
(09:03):
So, yeah,I, I did do a lot of stuff, for example.
And I was trusted with speaking tolike clients had like face on.
I had direct contact with them.
I would manage accountsand reservations independently.
You know, there was no kind of assistancefor managers.
(09:24):
They were they had other things to do,a lot of other things to do really.
And stuff like Nice.
And what skills would you say thatyou picked up during your time.
Time management definitely.
You know, being thrown in the deep end
when you're let's say competency or skill
is definitely not at the deep end level,shall we say.
(09:46):
Means that in order to reach that level,you do have to, you know,
be better at time managementto kind of compensate
and to build your buildyour competency up.
So time management was really importantfor me because obviously there's
only so many hours in a day, you know,and some days got really busy.
So that was one thing.
(10:06):
Communication was really,really important.
My particular,
branch or department I worked inwas a national operation.
Normally branches at EnterpriseMobility are more local.
So, you know, you know, in the London areaor even smaller than that,
maybe a few mile radius,I guess you could say.
(10:27):
Whereas we were a natural operationworking in a team of maybe 6 or 7 people.
So with that came
very important communication keysto avoid ambiguous apps.
And there were timeswhere the communication level did lack,
and we obviously had to pay the price,and which taught me that lesson.
(10:49):
And did you feel integrated into the teamas just
another member yet built, ostracizedas like the the baby.
No no no no, not at all.
So, each member of the teamhad their designated tasks.
They were aware from the very early onand what we what I had to do, and,
that kind of my responsibilitieswere very important
(11:11):
to the overall operation, to the overallkind of stability of the operation.
And if I made a mistake,it would have consequential impacts.
Right. So obviously,
what I was doing was very importantbecause because of that fact. So.
And once you got to the end of the yearand you're obviously
now back completing your degree, did you,
(11:33):
have you been offered work at that place.
Yeah.
So it's not, it's not common
for the placement studentto be offered the role back.
I know I have a friend up at unithat also did my did the enterprise
mobility placement and unfortunatelyhe didn't he wasn't offered that role.
(11:54):
But yeah, thankfully I was I had a meeting with my area manager.
He sat me down.
He kind of we went over my performance of throughout the year.
And another thing as well, enterpriseability is very numbers driven.
So it's a it's a it's a numbersdriven business, you know, KPIs.
And there's a lot of kind of, dashboards
(12:16):
that you look at on a monthly basis. So
viewing and analyzing
growth and overall performance is veryis quite linear.
It is quite simple to do.
And so we just kind of sat down and said,look at the beginning of the year
we were here, but now we're here.
And honestly there was we,we grew quite a lot in that year.
So yeah, I did I did receive an offer.
(12:38):
I did stay in extra, extra, I think it wasthree, maybe three and a half months.
So obviously it was a 12 month placementwhich took me from June to June.
And I had that summer ahead of me and,and if I hadn't stayed there,
I would have got a hospitalityor a part time job anyway.
So I did ask the question.
I said, look,would you be open to keeping me on?
Obviously they did pay me during that timeso they could have said no.
(13:00):
But I was very gratefulthat they didn't.
And I'm carrying onthat kind of trajectory
as a campus brand manager as well.
And so I still liaise with,you know, Monica and everyone else.
I enterprise and I attend career fairs.
And I kind of tried to,
(13:24):
kind of
try to advertise the management trainingprogram from a, from a, from a placement
from a student perspective, as opposed tofrom a manager perspective, Yeah.
Of course.
So you've got the job waiting for youonce you graduate, do you
you obviously like that's amazing.
Do you feel a disconnect betweenyour degree and what you've gone into?
(13:45):
Do you see yourself at enterpriseMobility forever
or you just likethis is a great stepping stone.
I'm really happy here,and it's sort of a really lucky
thing that you've landed in this job,that even though it's
quite different from your degree, it'sworked out really well for you.
Yeah.
I mean, I've got a very I've got a passionfor occupational and organizational
(14:07):
psychology, which is kind of,you know, psychology in the workplace,
business psychology,kind of people management and such.
And a lot of those things were involved
in the business,the the management training program.
And so it does cover a lot of the basesthat I am interested in.
It doesn't cover all. Absolutely.
(14:29):
And I don't thinkmany placements could cover all.
And so I would say I'd be very keen on staying
because I think the kind of structure is,very appealing
to a young individual in the sensethat there's a lot of room for promotion,
there's a lot of room forwith the promotions and salary increases,
(14:52):
you do get paid, I'd say quite,
healthily and quite proportionatelyto what you put into the business.
And it still is drivenin the majority of branches.
So if you, you know, can put that work in.
And as I said,the dashboards can, can verify that,
(15:13):
then it's a very great, great place to be.
To tell me a bit more about thethe management scheme,
is that something that's only offeredas a placement to students.
Yeah.
So the title that I had was EnterpriseMobility training Management training.
So that was the internship title.
So, when you if I were to stay on
(15:34):
after uni, I'd goin as a management trainee.
And then you have to complete like a.
I guess the best way to summarizeis a competency test.
And so there's like five keyalmost modules and that kind of cover
all the different areas of the businessrisk, cost reduction
and cost control and a few other pieces.
(15:57):
As long as in that interview,you can show the manager
that you've gained valuable experience,that you can transfer
to the officialrole, and then you become a
management trainee oran assistant management, one of the two.
I should remember now and then itkind of just goes up from there, really.
What did you findthe most challenging aspect?
(16:20):
It's interestingbecause I, I say the best aspect
is that your friend in the deep end,
but the most challenging aspectis also your friend, the deep end.
If that means this is a bit of a doubleedged sword.
You know,
now, in hindsight, I'm talking about itin a very kind of glorious manner,
but in the heat of it, it is veryit can be quite intense.
Because, you know, you'reyou're just constantly learning,
(16:42):
you know,it's like learning a new language.
Everything is sitting and familiarwith yourself.
You know, you never feel likeyou can fully comprehend, comprehend it.
But that wasprobably the most difficult thing.
And with that came up other thingslike, communication.
And there were timeswhere my judgment wasn't,
didn't align with the managersmanager's judgment.
(17:05):
And because they gave meso much independency,
I obviously made decisions,important decisions.
And without the,you know, the requirements of the managers
input and obviously in the best intereststo the to the business.
And sometimes I did backfire.
And then when we kind of
went over,
you know,the, the like obviously had a conversation
(17:28):
with a manager and we spoke about itand I kind of gave him my perspective.
He said, look, next time I appreciateyour perspective, but next time you this
those are difficult conversations to havebecause no one likes messing up, right?
It was difficult,especially on a, on a, on a scale of,
you know whatwhat I was working with as well.
And that was difficult to kind ofto kind of have this conversations.
(17:50):
But yeah.
Worth it. Yeah. For sure.
And if you hadn't been offereda place at Enterprise Mobility,
would you feel confidentgoing into the workplace and into the job
seeking market with everythingthat you took from your placement?
100%.I think I've grown like, tenfold. Really.
They're they're kind of, training,
(18:12):
they're kind of employee development, training modules.
I don't really know what
the technical term is,
but they're kind of structurein that sense is very, very strong.
You know, you have,I think for kind of days
within that one year that was therewhere you go to the head office
and they kind of they sit with internstogether from all around the country.
(18:33):
So, you know, it was based in Heathrow,but he had people coming from Scotland
and everywhere.
And for that, four timesin that year, we were taught
like in thorough detail,the five or the 4 or 5 key modules
I mentioned that were in that interview
that you need, youthen need to do at the end of the year.
And so it kind of meant thateven if your branches
(18:56):
didn't teach you sufficiently,everyone is on the same level.
They should be, at leastbecause you've had that,
you know, there's four dayswhere you've been kind of
taught it outside the business,if that makes sense.
So yeah, I do think I'm a better person.
And because it coversa wide variety of business
and it's not just, you know, one thingand, you know, I become really good at it,
(19:20):
but I'm really overcoming a good at allthe elements of managing a business.
Yeah.
What advice would you give to peoplethat are considering doing an internship.
Let's say as well that their degreedoesn't offer a place in industry.
Sort of.
At what point would you suggestthey start looking
into applying for internshipsand should they do it?
(19:42):
So, so in the case of a payment.
So I did a placement here.
So second year, by the end of second year,
I needed to knowthat I had secured a placement. Right.
So I'd say start lookingearly as possible.
And especially in this an employmentcrisis that we're going through is
is more important than ever reallyto start looking as soon as possible.
(20:03):
And and that can startfrom October and November.
And I definitely would sayby December for sure.
And because it gives you a bit of timeand a day of a cushion to kind of,
familiarize yourself with your strengths.
And to kids, your CV towardsthat to cater applications
(20:24):
towards those strengths.
And it's also a numbers game as well.
And, you know,
I'd say I'm quite a competent person,but even I had number of rejections,
you know, there's peoplethat are even more competent than me
and they probably have sameif they're more rejections than me.
So it is a numbers game.
And to kind of try to tackle
(20:45):
that and time is against you really.
So that early you start, the more the more applications you can get through.
And like, what advice would you giveto stand out in your application?
Like what do you thinkyou did to get yours?
I think I stood out most in my in-personinterview.
It's really difficultto stand out from a CV perspective
(21:07):
unless you're, you know,you're an exceptional student.
You've done,you know, 4 or 5 extracurricular stuff,
which I'd say most people are only donemaybe 2 or 3.
I think from the from the interview
interview standpoint, I was really I'd sayobviously dress, dress for the occasion.
And I kind of went over the top.
(21:27):
I came in a whole suit and,and some people would say,
that's doing too much,but even if it is doing too much,
they're going to remember that wordsit's for the best or for the worst,
when they're thinking about,
you know, who to say on theirbut oh, the guy who's in the suit.
Right.
So I dress up in a suitwhich made me stand out.
I'm not saying
everyone suggests I'm in a suit, but,you know, you you get what I'm coming from
(21:51):
and obviously don't dress upin, in casual, like joggers, for example.
But other than that, I showed anexceptional level of confidence as well.
And that was just confidence in myself.
It wasn't it wasn't necessarily confidencerelating to the role.
It was just that when they asked mequestions, I had that genuine belief that
even if I didn't have a direct answerI can have, I had experience to kind of
(22:15):
weave my way around into the answer,if that makes sense.
And I think that confidence kind of.
They definitely saw And has thatcome with time.
Have you applied to a lot of thingsand sat in a lot of interviews
and learned that, or was itjust something that you went in with
and you were like, right.
Well, I've got to appear confident,even if I'm not necessarily.
Of course.
I mean,I think a lot of it was under preparation.
(22:37):
So of all the interviewsthat I've got to, I would always before
obviously a couple of daysleading up to it, I'd have a look back
at the kind of the job descriptionand the skills
that they require from yourself,and you kind of,
put associate past experiencerelating that, releasing it to the skills.
(22:59):
For example, hospitality,you know, customer facing,
time management as well,all sorts of skills that you can relate
to that weren'tdirectly business management related.
Again,
I had no experiencein business management,
so I knew whatever questionsthat they would ask in terms of experience
or describe a time when this happenedto scribe, a time when that happened.
(23:20):
I'd have to go back to my roots. Really?
Yeah.
So that kind of helpsme feel a bit more confident.
When I was asked us questionsbecause I didn't panic,
I kind of just kind of took a step back
and I was able to tell them the storyof what happened and and stuff.
(23:40):
yeah, definitely, Amazing.
Thank you so much foryour time today. No problem.
They did let me make mistakes.
And I honestly, I did.
To be fair, I did make quite a few,
but I think that's a good thingbecause I've learned from them.
So in the same environmentor in similar environments in the future,
I'm going to be in a place where I've,I've, I've been there and I've done that.
Right.
So, Hello and welcome back to Future You.
(00:21):
The Early Careers and Student advicepodcast brought to you by prospects.
So I'm an I.
I studied psychologyat University of East Anglia.
I've been this is my fourth yearnow in my first a four year course.
So this is my final year
in my third year,I did a placement at Enterprise Mobility.
(00:42):
So how did you find that placement?
Yeah.
So, I stumbled across it,
so everyI think it was month or one of the two,
we'd have a bulletinthat our careers team could.
Career central would kind of publish or
an email out to all the placementstudents, essentially.
(01:02):
And every week I'd go through them.
A lot of the time it was, as I say,I love them with finance related
one necessarily, related to my degreeor my interests.
But on one occasion,
that the enterprise mobilityadvertising advertisement came up,
I took to the boxes,you know, it was based in London.
(01:25):
I'm from London.
And so that was obviously a big thing.I didn't want to move out.
And that's a lot of moneyand a lot of commitment.
So that was a big box.
And I kind of applied.
It was a little bitout of my comfort zone.
It wasn't psychology related.
But I tried to kind of link
my skills to the role and,and finally I bought the job.
and what was the application process like?
(01:46):
Was it just a simple fill in a formor was there a long process?
Yeah.
So I found I found that when, when I wasapplying for like the huge corporate
kind of giants, I guess you could saythere was that kind of eight,
seven, eight sage application process,you know, centers and etc.
and whereas enterprise was a lot more kindof streamlined in the sense that I had
(02:08):
obviously the initial application,which was, you know, background CV,
can't actually rememberif there was a cover letter, but
I think there was a lot of applicationsI would do cover letters for.
So most likely, and then onceyou obviously they blew through that,
they get back to you.
And then the next stageis a phone interview.
(02:29):
So you'll get a call from one ofthe talent acquisition teams, Do members.
They have a quick discussion review
kind of gauge, you know, whyyou're looking for that particular role.
Why do you think need to suit that role?
And some of an informal interview,I'd say.
And there was a very like casualconversation I didn't throw to pressured.
And then once obviouslythey've looked into that and they thought
(02:51):
that you're suitable for the role, youthen get asked to do a branch visit.
So that is quite a unique, quite
a unique approachfrom the enterprise mobility perspective.
Because what it is is you obviouslyhave your standard interface interview,
which you have at the branch,but before that interview you have, well,
it depends on the day, on the business,
(03:12):
the employees or the managers busyness.
But for example, in my case,I had I think,
I think close to two hours of timeto just speak
with the team,get to know what they kind of shadow them.
I guess you could say
get get familiar with what kind of thingsI'd be involved in and exposed to.
And then obviously after the two hoursI had an interview and
(03:34):
and that was a yes or no from Wow. Okay.
And you mentioned you'restudying in at UVA in Norwich.
So you're based in Norwich,but the internship placement is in London.
And that was okay for youbecause did you intend to just sort of
like move back to London, staywith family, friends, that sort of thing?
Yeah.
So I'm from London
(03:55):
and I grew up in Londonand I was in my family houses in London.
And whilstI would have been open to a placement
in Norwich, I think I probably would,would have been open to that.
The actual advertisementwas for a particular branch in London.
So, obviously living at home is a bitmore.
Was really less financially, financiallyand streaming than having to pay
(04:20):
for another year of accommodationin Absolutely.
And generally do you thinkwhen you're looking for an internship.
So enterprisemobility luckily had one in London
and they have quite a few acrossthe country don't they.
So depending on where you're studyingor where you're from you're
(04:41):
probably going to find one nearby.
Do you know of peoplethat really push themselves out of their
not even comfort zone, but like literalzone in order to pursue a placement?
Yeah.
Yeah, yeah, I,I know friends from my year group
who did a placement year as wellin different degrees, but also my own.
And, and they did move out.
(05:04):
They moved out to places
that weren't even particularly big arealike big cities and as well.
So I have a friend that moved somewherein Gloucestershire,
which is was quite a quaint town.
Yeah, exactly. And
purely for the purpose of the Yeah.
And I don't thinkhe has any regrets. Right.
(05:25):
So he just sort of moved out,
rented somewhere for the year,and then came back to finish the degree.
Exactly. Yeah.
I think he was with,he lived with his team or people
relevant to the role,I believe, which I think often
especially the bigger employerswill have something like that set up.
And even if they don't have, you know,kind of a house sharing structure,
(05:47):
they will have,
you know, people you can contact, websitesyou can reach out to and such.
Yeah, absolutely.
I would I would definitely if you'relooking for a placement or an internship,
I wouldn't like say no straight awayjust because of the location.
Obviously in enterprise mobility,from their perspective,
you know, it's a nationaland national operation.
(06:07):
So whilst my advertisement was for London,
if, they deemed that I was,
suitable for the
role after, you know, that whole processand I had I'm sure
if I had a conversation with them,they'd actively find another branch
that is ready to take me on in,in a more suitable area.
(06:29):
Yeah, absolutely.
And were you paid for your placement.
So my person was paid.
Thank you very,very for, for the opportunity
for it to have been paidespecially from a psychology background.
It's not as great actually.
And I think if I was to do
an NHSor a non-paid placement or internship,
I think I'd be a lot more hesitantto move out 100%.
(06:53):
There's obviouslyyou'd have to do a part time job
because a lot of the none of the unpaidplacements are three days a week.
They're not actually full time.
Understandably, because, you know,they can't expect you to stay afloat
if it's full time and it's unpaid,just doesn't go hand in hand.
So what they expect is,you could take on a part
time role hospitality,retail or something like that.
(07:17):
And that would normally pay
for your kind of, like food and bills and stuff.
But taken on that,
alongwith having to pay for a accommodation,
I don't have
any personal experience in it, butI can see how it can be quite difficult
to manage. Yeah, absolutely.
So you were in your internship?
(07:38):
In your placement for a year.
What does the day to day look like?
Were you just making the coffeesor were you doing well?
I actually I'd say oh, there's obviously
a lot of great, great things to take outfrom my placement, enterprise mobility.
But one of the things I really dolike to tell my colleagues or anyone
that asks, really, is enterprise really dothrow you in the deep end?
(08:01):
And I think in my opinion,that was the best thing possible
because you have one year right whereyou're you're, as I said at the beginning,
the main focus of that of metaking out that year in the first place.
I forget about enterprise,but just solely taking out that yet
was so that I can gain experience now.
You know,
if I was to be making coffees, therewouldn't be any experience to be gained.
(08:23):
You know, I can make a coffee anywhere.
So, yeah, sounds for your question.
I was thrown into the deep end.
Obviously,
when I say thrown into the deep end, they,they they were appreciative of the fact
that I didn't have any experiencein their systems, in the software
and in certain things,but they kind of guided me through that.
But they didn't hold my hand.
(08:43):
They didn't spoon feed me kind of thing.
They did let me make mistakes.
And I honestly, I did.
To be fair, I did make quite a few,
but I think that's a good thingbecause I've learned from them.
So in the same environmentor in similar environments in the future,
I'm going to be in a place where I've,I've, I've been there and I've done that.
Right.
(09:03):
So, yeah,I, I did do a lot of stuff, for example.
And I was trusted with speaking tolike clients had like face on.
I had direct contact with them.
I would manage accountsand reservations independently.
You know, there was no kind of assistancefor managers.
(09:24):
They were they had other things to do,a lot of other things to do really.
And stuff like Nice.
And what skills would you say thatyou picked up during your time.
Time management definitely.
You know, being thrown in the deep end
when you're let's say competency or skill
is definitely not at the deep end level,shall we say.
(09:46):
Means that in order to reach that level,you do have to, you know,
be better at time managementto kind of compensate
and to build your buildyour competency up.
So time management was really importantfor me because obviously there's
only so many hours in a day, you know,and some days got really busy.
So that was one thing.
(10:06):
Communication was really,really important.
My particular,
branch or department I worked inwas a national operation.
Normally branches at EnterpriseMobility are more local.
So, you know, you know, in the London areaor even smaller than that,
maybe a few mile radius,I guess you could say.
(10:27):
Whereas we were a natural operationworking in a team of maybe 6 or 7 people.
So with that came
very important communication keysto avoid ambiguous apps.
And there were timeswhere the communication level did lack,
and we obviously had to pay the price,and which taught me that lesson.
(10:49):
And did you feel integrated into the teamas just
another member yet built, ostracizedas like the the baby.
No no no no, not at all.
So, each member of the teamhad their designated tasks.
They were aware from the very early onand what we what I had to do, and,
that kind of my responsibilitieswere very important
(11:11):
to the overall operation, to the overallkind of stability of the operation.
And if I made a mistake,it would have consequential impacts.
Right. So obviously,
what I was doing was very importantbecause because of that fact. So.
And once you got to the end of the yearand you're obviously
now back completing your degree, did you,
(11:33):
have you been offered work at that place.
Yeah.
So it's not, it's not common
for the placement studentto be offered the role back.
I know I have a friend up at unithat also did my did the enterprise
mobility placement and unfortunatelyhe didn't he wasn't offered that role.
(11:54):
But yeah, thankfully I was I had a meeting with my area manager.
He sat me down.
He kind of we went over my performance of throughout the year.
And another thing as well, enterpriseability is very numbers driven.
So it's a it's a it's a numbersdriven business, you know, KPIs.
And there's a lot of kind of, dashboards
(12:16):
that you look at on a monthly basis. So
viewing and analyzing
growth and overall performance is veryis quite linear.
It is quite simple to do.
And so we just kind of sat down and said,look at the beginning of the year
we were here, but now we're here.
And honestly there was we,we grew quite a lot in that year.
So yeah, I did I did receive an offer.
(12:38):
I did stay in extra, extra, I think it wasthree, maybe three and a half months.
So obviously it was a 12 month placementwhich took me from June to June.
And I had that summer ahead of me and,and if I hadn't stayed there,
I would have got a hospitalityor a part time job anyway.
So I did ask the question.
I said, look,would you be open to keeping me on?
Obviously they did pay me during that timeso they could have said no.
(13:00):
But I was very gratefulthat they didn't.
And I'm carrying onthat kind of trajectory
as a campus brand manager as well.
And so I still liaise with,you know, Monica and everyone else.
I enterprise and I attend career fairs.
And I kind of tried to,
(13:24):
kind of
try to advertise the management trainingprogram from a, from a, from a placement
from a student perspective, as opposed tofrom a manager perspective, Yeah.
Of course.
So you've got the job waiting for youonce you graduate, do you
you obviously like that's amazing.
Do you feel a disconnect betweenyour degree and what you've gone into?
(13:45):
Do you see yourself at enterpriseMobility forever
or you just likethis is a great stepping stone.
I'm really happy here,and it's sort of a really lucky
thing that you've landed in this job,that even though it's
quite different from your degree, it'sworked out really well for you.
Yeah.
I mean, I've got a very I've got a passionfor occupational and organizational
(14:07):
psychology, which is kind of,you know, psychology in the workplace,
business psychology,kind of people management and such.
And a lot of those things were involved
in the business,the the management training program.
And so it does cover a lot of the basesthat I am interested in.
It doesn't cover all. Absolutely.
(14:29):
And I don't thinkmany placements could cover all.
And so I would say I'd be very keen on staying
because I think the kind of structure is,very appealing
to a young individual in the sensethat there's a lot of room for promotion,
there's a lot of room forwith the promotions and salary increases,
(14:52):
you do get paid, I'd say quite,
healthily and quite proportionatelyto what you put into the business.
And it still is drivenin the majority of branches.
So if you, you know, can put that work in.
And as I said,the dashboards can, can verify that,
(15:13):
then it's a very great, great place to be.
To tell me a bit more about thethe management scheme,
is that something that's only offeredas a placement to students.
Yeah.
So the title that I had was EnterpriseMobility training Management training.
So that was the internship title.
So, when you if I were to stay on
(15:34):
after uni, I'd goin as a management trainee.
And then you have to complete like a.
I guess the best way to summarizeis a competency test.
And so there's like five keyalmost modules and that kind of cover
all the different areas of the businessrisk, cost reduction
and cost control and a few other pieces.
(15:57):
As long as in that interview,you can show the manager
that you've gained valuable experience,that you can transfer
to the officialrole, and then you become a
management trainee oran assistant management, one of the two.
I should remember now and then itkind of just goes up from there, really.
What did you findthe most challenging aspect?
(16:20):
It's interestingbecause I, I say the best aspect
is that your friend in the deep end,
but the most challenging aspectis also your friend, the deep end.
If that means this is a bit of a doubleedged sword.
You know,
now, in hindsight, I'm talking about itin a very kind of glorious manner,
but in the heat of it, it is veryit can be quite intense.
Because, you know, you'reyou're just constantly learning,
(16:42):
you know,it's like learning a new language.
Everything is sitting and familiarwith yourself.
You know, you never feel likeyou can fully comprehend, comprehend it.
But that wasprobably the most difficult thing.
And with that came up other thingslike, communication.
And there were timeswhere my judgment wasn't,
didn't align with the managersmanager's judgment.
(17:05):
And because they gave meso much independency,
I obviously made decisions,important decisions.
And without the,you know, the requirements of the managers
input and obviously in the best intereststo the to the business.
And sometimes I did backfire.
And then when we kind of
went over,
you know,the, the like obviously had a conversation
(17:28):
with a manager and we spoke about itand I kind of gave him my perspective.
He said, look, next time I appreciateyour perspective, but next time you this
those are difficult conversations to havebecause no one likes messing up, right?
It was difficult,especially on a, on a, on a scale of,
you know whatwhat I was working with as well.
And that was difficult to kind ofto kind of have this conversations.
(17:50):
But yeah.
Worth it. Yeah. For sure.
And if you hadn't been offereda place at Enterprise Mobility,
would you feel confidentgoing into the workplace and into the job
seeking market with everythingthat you took from your placement?
100%.I think I've grown like, tenfold. Really.
They're they're kind of, training,
(18:12):
they're kind of employee development, training modules.
I don't really know what
the technical term is,
but they're kind of structurein that sense is very, very strong.
You know, you have,I think for kind of days
within that one year that was therewhere you go to the head office
and they kind of they sit with internstogether from all around the country.
(18:33):
So, you know, it was based in Heathrow,but he had people coming from Scotland
and everywhere.
And for that, four timesin that year, we were taught
like in thorough detail,the five or the 4 or 5 key modules
I mentioned that were in that interview
that you need, youthen need to do at the end of the year.
And so it kind of meant thateven if your branches
(18:56):
didn't teach you sufficiently,everyone is on the same level.
They should be, at leastbecause you've had that,
you know, there's four dayswhere you've been kind of
taught it outside the business,if that makes sense.
So yeah, I do think I'm a better person.
And because it coversa wide variety of business
and it's not just, you know, one thingand, you know, I become really good at it,
(19:20):
but I'm really overcoming a good at allthe elements of managing a business.
Yeah.
What advice would you give to peoplethat are considering doing an internship.
Let's say as well that their degreedoesn't offer a place in industry.
Sort of.
At what point would you suggestthey start looking
into applying for internshipsand should they do it?
(19:42):
So, so in the case of a payment.
So I did a placement here.
So second year, by the end of second year,
I needed to knowthat I had secured a placement. Right.
So I'd say start lookingearly as possible.
And especially in this an employmentcrisis that we're going through is
is more important than ever reallyto start looking as soon as possible.
(20:03):
And and that can startfrom October and November.
And I definitely would sayby December for sure.
And because it gives you a bit of timeand a day of a cushion to kind of,
familiarize yourself with your strengths.
And to kids, your CV towardsthat to cater applications
(20:24):
towards those strengths.
And it's also a numbers game as well.
And, you know,
I'd say I'm quite a competent person,but even I had number of rejections,
you know, there's peoplethat are even more competent than me
and they probably have sameif they're more rejections than me.
So it is a numbers game.
And to kind of try to tackle
(20:45):
that and time is against you really.
So that early you start, the more the more applications you can get through.
And like, what advice would you giveto stand out in your application?
Like what do you thinkyou did to get yours?
I think I stood out most in my in-personinterview.
It's really difficultto stand out from a CV perspective
(21:07):
unless you're, you know,you're an exceptional student.
You've done,you know, 4 or 5 extracurricular stuff,
which I'd say most people are only donemaybe 2 or 3.
I think from the from the interview
interview standpoint, I was really I'd sayobviously dress, dress for the occasion.
And I kind of went over the top.
(21:27):
I came in a whole suit and,and some people would say,
that's doing too much,but even if it is doing too much,
they're going to remember that wordsit's for the best or for the worst,
when they're thinking about,
you know, who to say on theirbut oh, the guy who's in the suit.
Right.
So I dress up in a suitwhich made me stand out.
I'm not saying
everyone suggests I'm in a suit, but,you know, you you get what I'm coming from
(21:51):
and obviously don't dress upin, in casual, like joggers, for example.
But other than that, I showed anexceptional level of confidence as well.
And that was just confidence in myself.
It wasn't it wasn't necessarily confidencerelating to the role.
It was just that when they asked mequestions, I had that genuine belief that
even if I didn't have a direct answerI can have, I had experience to kind of
(22:15):
weave my way around into the answer,if that makes sense.
And I think that confidence kind of.
They definitely saw And has thatcome with time.
Have you applied to a lot of thingsand sat in a lot of interviews
and learned that, or was itjust something that you went in with
and you were like, right.
Well, I've got to appear confident,even if I'm not necessarily.
Of course.
I mean,I think a lot of it was under preparation.
(22:37):
So of all the interviewsthat I've got to, I would always before
obviously a couple of daysleading up to it, I'd have a look back
at the kind of the job descriptionand the skills
that they require from yourself,and you kind of,
put associate past experiencerelating that, releasing it to the skills.
(22:59):
For example, hospitality,you know, customer facing,
time management as well,all sorts of skills that you can relate
to that weren'tdirectly business management related.
Again,
I had no experiencein business management,
so I knew whatever questionsthat they would ask in terms of experience
or describe a time when this happenedto scribe, a time when that happened.
(23:20):
I'd have to go back to my roots. Really?
Yeah.
So that kind of helpsme feel a bit more confident.
When I was asked us questionsbecause I didn't panic,
I kind of just kind of took a step back
and I was able to tell them the storyof what happened and and stuff.
(23:40):
yeah, definitely, Amazing.
Thank you so much foryour time today. No problem.
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