supermarket managers/aldi

AHarvey

AHarvey

AHarvey

Soldato
Joined
6 Mar 2008
Posts
10,085
Location
Stoke area
Hi all,

As some people may remember I was made redundant about 6 weeks ago and have been applying for any jobs going.

Well I have secured a job as a Web Chat Host for a company called Jackpot Joy working on a new account based in Newcastle-Under-Lyme. However, spending 9 hour shifts talking to bingo addicts online is about as appealing as peeling the skin off my testicles and dunking them in salt! :D But, its a job and better than being on the dole!

However, about a month ago I applied for an assistant manager position for Aldi in Stoke. Although I have lots of supervisor/management experience based in a food warehouse/despatch role I have none in retail. Figured it was a long shot but what the hell.

Had a letter come through this morning for a group interview at their head office in Neston. It is learning about the company and the role, then if succesful then, second interview. Now, I really want the job, it has lots of prospects, it will be challenging and stressful and it pays well too.

Reason for the post is to ask if anyone here has experience in a similar role and would be willing to jot down a few useful bits of wisdom for me? Or anyone work for Aldi and wants to tell me what it is like working for them?
 
As a general rule, I always used to research the the company I hoped to work for. History, structure, any future plans etc. It is amazing how much info is 'out there' these days...good luck.
 
try tesco,there management scheme is really good and the money is the best in retail(as far as im aware).
the company goes from strength to strength and the benefit's are good as well.
they are always looking for manager's.
another good point about tesco.....there is more store's about than aldi so you could relocate when ever you want.
 
I have a friend who used to be a regional manager for tesco.
As for Aldi, avoid like the plague, you will hate it as they work you like a dog, all hours, 7 days a week.
 
Know a couple of people who applied for their grad scheme but quit becuase as atbpx says, you basically spend your entire life at work.
 
Is it Aldi that offer starting salaries of £35k plus Audi? If so, then as previous posts have said they will work you like a dog. However it might still be worth the experience if you intend to move to other similar businesses.
 
The wage is 40k, as mentioned they expect you to be working a lot of hours. So it is like two jobs, but that was for an Area Manager.

Assistant Manager I assume will be different, simply staying at one store. The hours will still be long though, what is the pay - 29k?

At these types of interviews you have to show you have the experience and initiative, as well as able to accept a diverse role. I went to a presentation a while back, you could be mopping floors and then sorting out delivery issues, etc
 
I'm friends with a department manager in a local Sainsbury's. He says he wouldn't wish his job upon anyone - 10+ hour shifts and it's not unusual to work 6 day weeks. Working in retail just seems terrible no matter what position you're in.
 
Thanks for all the info so far, working long hours really doesn't bother me. Spent the last 6-7 years working 46+ hours a week in 12 hour shifts.

It will be nice to be busy again :D

Assistant Store Managers
£24,750-£27,000
5 day 48hr week, store management career prospects, 5 weeks' paid holiday
Click to expand...

That is part of the advert for the job. 48 hours a week over 5 days is easy.
 
AHarvey said:
Hi all,

As some people may remember I was made redundant about 6 weeks ago and have been applying for any jobs going.

Well I have secured a job as a Web Chat Host for a company called Jackpot Joy working on a new account based in Newcastle-Under-Lyme. However, spending 9 hour shifts talking to bingo addicts online is about as appealing as peeling the skin off my testicles and dunking them in salt! :D But, its a job and better than being on the dole!

However, about a month ago I applied for an assistant manager position for Aldi in Stoke. Although I have lots of supervisor/management experience based in a food warehouse/despatch role I have none in retail. Figured it was a long shot but what the hell.

Had a letter come through this morning for a group interview at their head office in Neston. It is learning about the company and the role, then if succesful then, second interview. Now, I really want the job, it has lots of prospects, it will be challenging and stressful and it pays well too.

Reason for the post is to ask if anyone here has experience in a similar role and would be willing to jot down a few useful bits of wisdom for me? Or anyone work for Aldi and wants to tell me what it is like working for them?
Click to expand...

I'm doing a summer job at Aldi. Pays very well, well above industry standard. As i'm only driving a pallett truck round the warehouse (Regional distribution warehouse) i'm afraid i can;t really give you much of an indication of what its like, apart from the staff all being really friendly.

Tom.
 
24-29k seems very low for an assistant store manager position.

A Deputy store manager in a Cat 8 store (A store that takes more than £1 million per week in turnover) at Tesco has a starting salary of around 40k and climbs up to around 50k.


What size store is it?

The prospects in retail are incredible if you're the sort of person who can hack the pressure and thrive on it. The progression can be stupidly quick if you really give it your all.

I'm a deputy store manager for Tesco so any specific questions you have, just ask.
 
AHarvey said:
Thanks for all the info so far, working long hours really doesn't bother me. Spent the last 6-7 years working 46+ hours a week in 12 hour shifts.

It will be nice to be busy again :D



That is part of the advert for the job. 48 hours a week over 5 days is easy.
Click to expand...

Go into a store and ask how many hours they actually do a week. I bet its more than 48.
 
I worked for 3 months in Lidl (similar to Aldi from what I understand), but I worked as a 'normal' person on £6ph starting rate (went up after 3 months but I went to uni after 3 anyway).

The shifts were often long due to the store not having good staff or being understaffed, and you had to work hard. Even so I still really enjoyed it, early shifts were great, start at 6am, work till something like 2 or 3 and have the rest of the day to do what you like. I used to work 5-6 days a week, easily 40+ hours or something (I don't fully remember). I was down as working 5 days a week, 305 hours (or something).

The managers used to work similar hours, I'd often be on the same shift as a manager and I'd get in before them and sometimes leave after them. The management work in Lidl's wasn't overly difficult but it did used to stress out a few of the managers at times.

A couple of our managers took £2000 out the safe and did a runner, one before I started, and one shortly after I left, the one before I started got caught on the way out the store, the one that did it after I left got away with it...well got out the store and never appeared there again. :o

InvG
 
I know this is a major thread revival but I seem to get an email a week asking about this so here is the reply to the last person that emailed me:

"Hi,

Honestly, it was the weirdest damn interview I've ever been too.

When I arrived there was at least another 25 people there and we were ushered into a large meeting room.

Some manager came in and spoke a little about the company, how it's a hands on role and how they never promote a store manager to an area manager as they have a ceiling in place to stop it.

Then, we were split in to groups of around 3, and given a task to do.

Something along the lines of:

There is a group of people exploring a cave, when it starts to rain and fill up with water. They find a way out but it's a small tunnel leading to the surface that only fits 1 person at a time.

They then give you a list of people ranging from kids to old men, however, each one has a pro and a con.

I remember one was a scientist who was about to discover a cure for cancer, but was also a rapist/peadophile or something else as sick.

We had to put them in the order they would escape.


Now, we relayed back the order and stated why we chose that order. Then the manager says "there's no right or wrong answer" and then told us the order in which he would do his list which was "ignore the negative and concentrate on who would provide the most for the largest amount of people".

During the discussion process before saying our list the manager walked past for just a few seconds.

We were all thanked for coming and told that anyone who got through would receive a letter.

I never got a call back. As I said, the strangest interview ever, and the worst part was I was coming from a background as a logistics warehouse team leader managing teams for a food production company and could have done the job with my eyes shut.

However, if the competition now is as strong as it was back then you've done well to get this far. the 26-ish in my group were picked from an initial application group of over 1500!"


Hopefully this will stop the emails and help anyone who is interested
 
AHarvey said:
Hi all,

As some people may remember I was made redundant about 6 weeks ago and have been applying for any jobs going.

Well I have secured a job as a Web Chat Host for a company called Jackpot Joy working on a new account based in Newcastle-Under-Lyme. However, spending 9 hour shifts talking to bingo addicts online is about as appealing as peeling the skin off my testicles and dunking them in salt! :D But, its a job and better than being on the dole!

However, about a month ago I applied for an assistant manager position for Aldi in Stoke. Although I have lots of supervisor/management experience based in a food warehouse/despatch role I have none in retail. Figured it was a long shot but what the hell.

Had a letter come through this morning for a group interview at their head office in Neston. It is learning about the company and the role, then if succesful then, second interview. Now, I really want the job, it has lots of prospects, it will be challenging and stressful and it pays well too.

Reason for the post is to ask if anyone here has experience in a similar role and would be willing to jot down a few useful bits of wisdom for me? Or anyone work for Aldi and wants to tell me what it is like working for them?
Click to expand...

Treating you like a dog is what they do.

I used to work for Lidl who were Aldi-lite and that was bad enough. I had a couple of guys come work for me at Lidl who came from Aldi, the guy was a store manager, and he had been told from his management at Aldi hit your targets or you sacked tomorrow. Managers and deputies in his store used to buy food they would otherwise chuck out so they didn't miss targets worked 50+ hours every single week and got loads of bull.

Basically if you can put up with having no life the money is great, I put up with 5 years of Lidl before walking away, great money but horrific companies to work for!
 
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