Management training programs, leadership development programs, and other sorts of professional development offers newer employees that can help them advance further in the company. Specifically, these types of training programs offer a valuable commodity in an economy that has many businesses wanting to cut frills instead of making serious investments that don't factor into an ROI report. 

At first, says Marie Artim, It was, ÔÇÿOh my gosh, a full time job, I don't know if I've ever done that before. What am I going to spend my days doing?' And really, what ended up happening is that they went by so fast because there was so much to do and so much to learn. 

It sounds like a standard quote for anyone's first day in a new job. But today, Marie Artim is vice president of talent acquisition at Enterprise Holdings, and the above quote is her description of her first day at the Enterprise Management Training Program. Marie's first day of the program was in 1992, but she still credits it with teaching her the basics of the business.

Enterprise Rent-a-Car offers a comprehensive training program for their new hires. Each employee begins at the same level, handling customers, calls, and other tasks to learn the basics of the business. As they work, new hires are also trained and groomed for advancement, since the company hires almost entirely from within. 

Like nearly everyone in our executive leadership team, I learned valuable lessons from my time behind a rental counter in the management training program, writes Randal Narike, vice president of Canadian operations at Enterprise, in an email. Narike also credits the program with creating a shared culture to build on in the office. It also fosters a wonderful sense of teamwork when, as a management trainee, you know that the levels of management above you have all been in your shoes and want you to succeed and grow in your career.

Management training programs like the one at Enterprise can be great for establishing a common culture, but other programs, like the Rotational Leadership Development Program (RLDP) at Sun Life Financial, can help a select amount of applicants super-charge their career path.

The RLDP at Sun Life moves young employees to three different roles in three years at the company. Alex Kirschner, 22, is an HR business consultant entering his second year of RLDP.

I spent my first week in orientation with the other RLDP participants hired in my year, he writes in an email. I think this was the perfect way to introduce us to the organization as opposed to diving right into work with a very limited understanding of the business. The orientation also helped us establish our peer network by spending time learning more about each other.

For someone like myself, who is still not sure what area I want to be working in five or 10 years from now, the freedom to try different roles and learn about other business units  from my peers and from others in the network I have built is an incredible opportunity.

So, when applying for jobs, don't just look at the hours you'll work, or the duties, also see if the company offers some sort of training and development program. The things you learn and the people you might meet can take you higher, teaching you more while you earn money too. After all, getting paid to learn on the job is a pretty sweet deal. 

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