Pros
Good Benefits: Seriously, my new job has a $1,000 deductible and 50% higher premiums. Free Stuff: “Giveaways” happen 1-5 times a week. A cart with excess samples gets put it. Your pantry will be pretty full of stuff you don’t necessarily want. But you will get some gems here and there. Fast Promotion (for some) Some teams hand out promotions with 25% raises after 9-12 months. Read further before you let this decide for you. Young Cool Coworkers Yeah. Lidl is young. You might be on a team of people who are young and fun. This also tends to make things feel cliquey. Also everyone is having a baby. Which is another social barrier. But do you really want to have entangling friendships at work? Up to you.
Cons
Unclear promotional structure Previously, the promotional structure was murky. On purpose? You might be told, “if you do X,Y, and Z you might get a promotion!” and it’s a gamble whether its true or not. The carrot is only so effective when its crayons drawn on paper. New promotional structure The new promotional system is more clear, but the downside is that now more barriers are in place. It seems intentional to slow down labor cost increases. Pay And why is the promotional system so important? Because the pay is below competitive. Way below competitive. If you start as an analyst, it will be very hard to pay your bills. I needed a roommate. And then when I had some emergencies, my savings were wiped. For higher titles the pay isn’t bad. Senior Analyst title is competitive in DC (compared to Analysts). Check salaries for DC/Arlington and cost of living. Management seems to do ok, pay-wise. I was hired as an analyst. After a year of believing I would be promoted, I got the automatic 10% raise. This put me at the bottom of the DC pay scale. I since found a new job paying 25% over this 10% raise. Management Its unclear they know what they were doing. Back in the heady early days everyone got a promotion and so your manager might not be so experienced. Resting on its Laurels Lidl in Europe has a good system. They do well. They got rusty. They thought these successes would carry over to the US. How hard could it be? Just translate the product packaging to English right? Wrong. Another reason I left is job uncertainty. The 2018 realignment is not a good sign. All in all, the company is slow to change, invests in their people in some obscure ways (some free food/snacks, good benefits). But not in other tangible ways: clear feedback, competitive salary.