Vantaggi
Working at Tesco is a fantastic learning opportunity and you do feel like you are doing important work with big budgets and the chance to work alongside some key figureheads in the retail industry. The new CEO is great, really down to earth and approachable even when faced with severe problems. There are great structured development programmes in place and you can progress rapidly if on one of these, (e.g. marketing graduate scheme 3 x 6 month placements then promoted to marketing manager) however despite the intended structure I know plenty of people including myself who have unfortunately not had the expected experience. Because the business is so large there are lots of opportunities to get involved in extra things like community events, youth panels, women in business networks etc. Generally people are open to new ideas although sometimes it can be very hard to make it happen due to wayyyyy too much red tape. There is a very much a culture of meeting up with people to find out about their job roles over coffee- if you join as a grad I would do this as much as you can, it's pretty much expected.
Svantaggi
-Probably down to the size of the business but sometimes it is hard to make an impact and too many internal processes can limit the speed that things can get done. -I feel really let down by Tesco, admittedly they haven't been having the best time recently but I had to leave due to the fact I wasn't progressing as quickly as I need to (and that they promised when I joined on the graduate scheme) -Also, my advice would be to stay away from HR as they hinder you rather than help you- it seems that the majority of promotions happen because a director has asked for a specific person, even though the company pride themselves on their development process. If you do ask HR for help, they will meddle and will also hide information from you. I think if you are going to have a process it should be followed by all so it's fairer and less confusing! -If you don't join as a grad it's even harder to progress- you won't get on if you just do a good job, you have to prove yourself to directors and 'leave a legacy'. -The social culture is pretty much non existant, everyone drives to work so you never go for drinks after work, and even if you wanted to the head office is in the back end of nowhere! -It's a very formal and hierarchical culture although this may change following the recent restructure as they definitely need a more balanced mix of personalities. They talk about bringing your personality to work but I found it hard to do this most of the time, when you are comparing weekends with your team it's difficult to say that you went to a rave in a car park whilst they were out riding their horse or going to the Chelsea flower show.