Enterprise Rent-A-Car company took a pit stop on Montclair State University’s campus to educate business majors on personal branding, networking and possible internships.
The company’s talent acquisition manager, Jennifer Santiago, awaited her fresh bunch of possible interns in the Student Center. Santiago described the extensive relationship between Montclair State and the car rental company.
“We’ve had a long-standing partnership and a lot of success with recruitment and hiring Montclair [State] students into our internships as well as our management training program,” Santiago said.
Jennifer Santiago explains the importance of personal branding.
Sunah Choudhry | The Montclarion Photo credit: Sunah Choudhry
Santiago went on to describe what she enjoys about the program.
“I also love to come to campus just to talk about professional development items such as interviewing, personal branding, networking; to set the students up for success,” Santiago said.
Santiago travels to many other universities within the tri-state area, including Ramapo University, William Paterson University, Fairleigh Dickinson University and more.
“[The interns] get on-the-job training on sales, customer service, marketing and they also get some classroom training at our corporate office,” Santiago said. “But it’s really good on-the-job training right out of a local branch, learning how to run a business.”
Senior marketing major Andrew Dietz (left) hands his Montclair State ID to the Coordinator for Cooperative Education and Internships for the Center of Career Services Annie Mercuro (right).
Sunah Choudhry | The Montclarion Photo credit: Sunah Choudhry
Students had started to pile in as a line had formed to scan themselves into the event.
“Enterprise usually comes on campus each semester to do personal development workshops for career-related topics,” said Coordinator for Cooperative Education and Internships for the Center of Career Services Annie Mercuro.
She defined her own role in the event.
“They work with all of the colleges on campus,” Mercuro said. “I am in the Center of Career Services… We put on events for all majors.”
Mercuro highlighted how this is the first time Enterprise is pairing up with the Center of Career Services to debut the event for Internship Week, which ran from Sept. 30 to Oct. 4.
Junior business management major Sandra Nawika (left) listens to Jennifer Santiago as she presents.
Sunah Choudhry | The Montclarion Photo credit: Sunah Choudhry
“I believe it is very informative depending on your major,” said junior business management major Sandra Nawika. “For business management majors, I feel like it gives you a different perspective on different brands.”
Nawika continued to detail the importance of the event.
“Enterprise is [a] very common [business],” Nawika said. “I’m taking this business-to-career transition class and this is part of that class.”
Senior business concentration and marketing major Phil Edwards revealed that all business administration majors are required to attend business related events on campus in order to receive a grade for the campus to career transition course.
Senior business concentration and marketing major Phil Edwards waits for the presentation to begin.
Sunah Choudhry | The Montclarion Photo credit: Sunah Choudhry
The site students use to take care of their academic and financial needs, NEST, says that business administration majors are required to take all four levels of the campus-to-career transition course in order to graduate.
Each level of the course has a different initiative, such as getting your resume and networking cards approved by the School of Business Career Services. Within those levels, students are also required to attend five campus events to earn five points to pass the course.
This practice is common for Montclair State students. For example, instead of initiatives, School of Communication and Media students have to attend two colloquiums where industry professionals visit the school to share their experiences in the media world and offer answers to students’ questions.
Jennifer Santiago goes through PowerPoint slides about the program.
Sunah Choudhry | The Montclarion Photo credit: Sunah Choudhry
Though the event might have been required by the program, Santiago noted the wide-range success that the event has on students.
“We’ve had success with [the] recruitment of students into the internship program from these workshops,” Santiago said. “It makes them feel really glad that they came to it because they never knew that they would end up with an internship with us as well.”
