Finance & Strategy - Wholesale Payments

Finance, Strategy & Entrepreneurship

This experience allowed me to understand the challenges the CEO of a small growing enterprise faces and the skill sets I will need to develop to add value as an executive in the future.

One full year of Persian-Farsi immersion and six months of advanced gadgetry training later, I finally arrived at Ft. Bliss. I was so fortunate to train alongside several outstanding leaders. I learned that the best leaders make tough choices-to sleep less, train harder, and consistently raise the bar. Our hard work paid off in Afghanistan, and we passed on our lessons learned when we came home.

I spent the first half of my deployment leading a 12 man intelligence team for 14 hours a day out a plywood shack. We all learned an incredible amount about analytic software, data analysis, and intelligence reporting in a very short period of time. Our work ultimately resulted in over 50 high value targets being removed from the battlefield. Once I was allowed to see the light of day, I bounced around remote outposts throughout southern Afghanistan with a 5 man team. Our missions led us up and down mountains and through narrow valleys feeding ground force commanders near real time intelligence. This was by far the most eye opening and rewarding part of my military experience.

So this wasn't exactly the glamorous financial analyst job I imagined I would have after graduation, but looking back I learned more than I bargained for. How do you turn a grouchy customer who just experienced an automobile accident into a satisfied one? How do you drive sales and control costs? How do you create a positive culture that customers feel when they walk in the door? How do you wash cars in a suit in the summer? How do you play detective and track down a stolen rental car? I learned all this and more at Enterprise Rent-A-Car.