Tara isn't someone who likes to stand still. Tara's programme has provided the perfect opportunity to get stuck in, develop her leadership skills and serve her community.
My name's Tara, and I’m a Sales grad.
Can you tell us a bit about yourself?
In my spare time - I'm going to be honest with you - I'm an absolute foodie. Just take me anywhere where there's good food (like Camden) is an absolute dream for me. And I absolutely love to travel. So, food and travel go absolutely hand in hand. And so, yeah, I eat my way around countries.
I'm most passionate about making sure I leave a mark behind. So, on the graduate program, there's loads of flexibility to move around and go to different stores, different departments, and I always like to try and leave a little something; whether it's making a new friend or, increasing charity donations, that's something I'm incredibly passionate about.
I would say that one of my strengths is that I'm very much a people person, and in Lidl, you’ve got to be one. You're walking around the shop floor and people approach you all the time. You've got to get to know your team. I'm always down for a conversation and always down to be that helping hand!
Why did you choose the Lidl Grad program?
I chose the Lidl Grad program because I didn't want to work in a 9 to 5. I get fidgety when I'm sitting still for too long, I really wanted to be on my feet, and I felt like this was the best place to embrace that. As I said, I'm a real people person, so I really enjoy spending time with people and interacting with the team.
Is your programme what you expected?
I would say, long story short, no, it's definitely not what I expected.
I didn't expect it to be so physical, but to be honest, it's been a good thing for me. I'm always busy, I'm always working hard, but there have been so many positives. I didn't expect to be spending so much time with customers, I didn't expect to be developing relationships across the business, I have exposure to people on the regional Board and training teams, so it's fantastic.
I would describe the graduate program as a once in a lifetime experience. I mean, there is absolutely no other graduate program out there that gives you so much responsibility from such a young age. I'm 22 and I'm running a store. It's really tough, but I absolutely love it.
What is a typical day for you in store?
In all honesty, it depends where I am and what store I'm in, or if I'm on a rotation in my region. But right now, I'm based in stores (I'm in a pretty tough store). So it's usually a 5am start and I'm helping my team, my customer assistants and my shift managers work the stock.
The priority is always the shop floor, and once that is sorted, then I'm good to crack on with the management side of things. I make sure that we're monitoring hours, making sure my team are happy and making sure everything customer facing is on-point.
How do you get along with the other Grads?
Honestly, the other grads on this program have been fantastic. We're all doing slightly different things at the moment, but they've been such a rock, you know. When you're by yourself, you feel like it's just you. And then you realise that everybody else is going through the exact same thing. Whenever we can, we try and get together. We have a fantastic little group chat on WhatsApp, and we all get to share our experiences.
What are you most proud of so far?
Something that I'm incredibly proud of during my time at Lidl is improving and rekindling the relationships with our Neighbourly program - just really making sure that I'm giving as much as I possibly can to charity. So all of our bakery items that we don't sell during the day, I try to make sure that our charity partners come and collect things and feed back to the community. I think it's really important for us to make sure we maintain a fantastic relationship with our local community.
To be honest, my favourite thing about Lidl is how much we give back to the local community. I think it's fantastic that we're really conscious business. I love the fact that we do a £1.50 fruit and veg boxes every day. We also have and maintain really good relationships with our local charities. So that's my favourite thing about Lidl.
What makes a good Lidl Grad?
I don't want to be cliche, but to be a good Lidl grad, you've really got to roll your sleeves up, get your hands dirty, but also be personable, be kind, respect your team. I think it's really important to make sure you develop relationships with your team from your customer assistants to your shift managers, your deputy store managers, because once they know that they're respected, they'll give a lot back to you. They're working with you at the end of the day, and that's something that's really important.
Do you feel you can be yourself at Lidl?
I really feel that I can be myself at Lidl. I come from a really multicultural and mixed background and one thing I absolutely love, especially in the store environment, is being around people from all parts of the world. I really enjoy it. I love learning new things about different cultures. I really love learning different languages. So yeah, it's really great when you get to hear and learn different phrases in a different language.
What excites you about your future with Lidl?
Something that really excites me about my future with Lidl is just the endless opportunities. I mean, if you look at our CEO, he used to be a grad, so it really shows you the full scale of opportunity at Lidl. Even in the space of almost a year, I've gone from customer assistant to full on store manager. So if I can do that in a year, hopefully there's so much more I can achieve in in the years to come.
What words would you use to describe working at Lidl?
The words that I would use to describe Lidl are resilience, rewarding and fast paced.