Pros
So to begin, I want to make it clear this review is only for the Chicago land area. I cannot speak for the hertz locations outside of that area so their experiences may differ. As I write this review I truly find myself finding a hard time finding Pros for this position. But I will be as objective as I can. 1. Pay- Outside of college you can make some decent money here, the secret lies in the overtime, but you will work your but off to a ridiculous amount, I will mention that in the cons. 2. 40% discount on rental vehicles- You and up to 9 friends/family members can get a 40% discount when they rent which is awesome. A full size vehicle could end up being $18/day which is always nice. 3. Not tied down-You don't just sit at a desk all day, you move around clean and drive cars, etc.
Cons
Unfortunately the Pro list does not balance the cons list in the slightest. 1. Pay-You start off in our area at 10.75/hour which is less then many other positions, even in some fast food locations. They pay time and 1/2 for overtime which is great until you work 20 hours of overtime every week and it gets old very quick. At the suburban locations you are looking at a minimum of 55 hours a week. If you take your 1 hour lunch break then only 50 hours Is paid. If you work a Saturday that's an even 60 at least. Most locations spend a substantial amount of time before opening and after closing getting ready for the following day. 2. Understaffed- The reason that so many hours are being worked is because the area is horribly understaffed. I've heard they are not hiring to many people because they want to make sure the people who they hire won't burn out after a couple weeks. Unfortunately that causes the people who are working to burn out quicker. 3. Training- There is virtually no training program. They say you will get a solid 2 weeks of training/shadowing before they put you behind the desk. For me, 1 day of paperwork, 1 day of learning how to read a reservation list and the protection that hertz offers, 3 days of running cars to O hare, and the rest was spent on their online teaching course called learning connection. 50% of what was on that was there for simply liability reasons, 25% was only applicable to certain positions and the last 25% which was actually helpful was poorly done. I had no experience writing contracts and when you get into your location and learn how easy it is to mess up an insurance contract, you are stepping on egg shells. 4. Work/life balance- Bottom line there is none. You virtually live at work. They have flex time where you can come in late or leave early, this is only the case when you have the staff to manage the store when you are down a person. 5. This is a SALES position- One thing that I felt lied to about was the emphasis that there is on sales. They want you selling insurance to 1 out of every 3 people. If you don't you get written up. Your job security and how quickly you move up in the company is based on that. Your encouraged by the general manager to see people as $$$, which is something I cannot bring myself to do. 6. Management- Branch managers are great. Above that they only care about your sales numbers, the branch's utility rate, and the NPS (Customer service rating). They don't care about what's going on in your life, only that you do your job.