Career Prospects at Coles

Need to stay in a role for minimum 1 year and network with others to find opportunities.

As a graduate, I'm not entirely across the promotion opportunities and what it takes within coles.

I don't believe I've been exposed to enough of this to provide a good judgement on it, being a graduate. From what I've seen, however, like all corporate companies, job hopping seems to be the best way to get promoted as opposed to climbing the ranks.

After the third rotation, graduates are encouraged to start looking at internal roles. After rolling off, there's an expectation to stay for at least 12 months within their new rotation. I see more lateral moves within the company then promotions up. Usually senior positions happen when someone has vacated the role. I do hear many situations of grads that's been at coles for a long time, rising in the ranks but it definitely takes a lot of time.

I am not too sure how promotions and career progression works at coles as I am still a graduate. However, there are people who have been working at coles for years and so I believe they are satisfied with their career progression.

Progressing fine. Wouldn’t want to progress further. The future looks bleak

I've only been there for 7 month's so hard to say.

During the program, we are offered the chance to move to another area of the business as a graduate. After this program, we are guaranteed a position somewhere in the business (may not be an ideal preference but still guaranteed). An open mind, curiosity, and confidence is needed to progress to a higher position.

My function is limited

As a large company, there are numerous positions in coles that you can move to - and the culture around these moves is very open. Coles allows you to move both horizontally and vertically in many of its positions.

Graduate have to apply internally after completion of program to secure a role

Grads are guaranteed a role off job- which makes it less stressful. Moving around the company seems quite easy, not sure about moving up.

Roll off opportunities are not defined for each area, some functions of the business have a closed recruitment process while other functions are told to just apply on internal careers. Networking is needed to grow your career at coles, but unsure of what it "takes" to move up ranks.

Lack of clarity about what to expect after the grad program and complete lack of salary transparency. Need current line manager permission to apply for internal jobs. Do have much information on how promotions work or how to get one. Grad program when asked does not give clear answers.

There seems to be a clear career progression after the graduate programme

There are a lot of opportunities for graduates after the program and you see previous people from the graduate program in management and senior positions. If you are ambitious, network well and work hard you can move up the ranks.

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Their are always comms coming out with new roles to apply for within the business and we are always encouraged to look for roles both internal and external to marketing. Heads of and direct managers are always offering to support if a role I'm interested in comes up.

Promotions/bonuses are a bit of a grey area at coles. There isn't much openly available information on how to progress your career, especially when internal promotions seem to pop out of nowhere without being actively advertised. The roll-off program has been a bit of a disappointment with a lack of clear information and support. It's very much left in the hands of graduates to ask around for budget or hope that someone leaves and opens up budget in a team. I would have thought there would be better forward career planning done by the p&c team to know where available roles would be when taking graduates on at coles.

There are opportunities but the growth is more of a concern to me. An acm has even spent up to 4 years waiting for her promotion to cm role, and this is too long. Many people will leave before this, but the general expectation is 2 years. I am unsure of the career growth in other spaces, but I was sad that I could not cross function into own brand during the program. Cross functioning is meant to be a benefit of the program, and I was not able to, and had to stay in commercial. Unfortunately, the area I interested in does not have many opportunities for graduates or new people to join. Likely, I will need to look into careers in other areas of the business.