I first had a telephone interview with the recruiter at the company's headquarter in New Jersey. He saisd the interview went fine, and we agreed to set- up a face to face interwiew with the General Manager couple of days later at 9:00. When I asked him if he has any advise for me before this face to face interview, he said to make sure I emplasize on my sales skills. Normally, the job interview is conducted by the Area Manager(I learned this later after being hired), but there were none ( as usual).
On the day of the interview, I came as expected at 9:00. I first met with a management trainee, introduced myself, and told him I had a job interview appointment with the Genaral Manager( this General Manager was asked to step down few months later) . This is a very common practice at Hertz regardless of your position and often with no explanation, hence the volatility of the company). I waited one hour for the Manager to come out, greet me, then take me to his office. The interview took at least 45 minutes. I answered all the questions to the best of my abilities. I got excited to work there based on the story he told me about himself, how great the company was, how quick and easy it is for a hardworking employee to advance,etc. He also went over the bonus program which I discovered later was a joke. Based on the outcome of the interview, I was almost sure I would get the job. Sure enough, three days later I received a call and an email from the recruiter that I was offered the job which I accepted.
They sent me for a one week shadowning at another location somewhere in Virginia. Hertz is always understaff because of the high rate of turnover. So, the trainer did not have time to teach me. He kept saying " this is just a shadwing, dont worry, when you get back to your assigned location your immediate manager will go over everything with you"( I found out later that this was a lie). After my one week shadowing, when I finally went to my location I was told that my manager was on family emergency leave and will be back by the end of the week. We were Monday, so this meant Friday. She called on that Friday saying that she will not be in until the following Monday. We started the training that following Monday. A week later, my Area Manager told me my manager was let go(fired) and another manager should be coming to train me in about three weeks. In the meantime, I was left on my own at the mercy of helps from collegues over the phone from other stores. The question I kept asking myself was this: Why could the General Manager help me in the meantime? Customers would get impatient and angry, some would yell, others would simply walk out to Enterprise across the street. What even shocked me was that before the end of that same week, I called one of our busy location and asked for help from the manager but was told he was fired too.
I would run like a fool in all places to vacum the cars, pick up the phone which rings off the hook(they expect you to pick the phone whithin three rings), customers returning their rentals would line up while others you booked the day before are waiting to be be served. And this was during winter time too so most cars needed to be washed. If you dont wash the car and clean to the gold customer's satisfaction you will get yelled at and/or fired. Customers would gets angry and complain. Long story short, I am not trying to denigrate the company, but I want you to take these factors into consideration when applying for a job at Hertz. It is a job if you need one, but not a career for sure. I quitted three months ago, and every single person I knew during the six months I was there quitted because of the same exact experience. Think about it: What is the point of training as manager only to find out that a block down the road you will get fired and start looking again but this time worse off. By the way in order t oadvance you have to sell the insurance proctection plan to the customers and meet certain quotas every month. You are required to tell the customer the plan is not mandatory, but you(the employee) better make sure the customer buys it, otherwise you will be given two written notices, the third of wich means termination.