John Maher, Sales Operations Manager at Lidl Ireland

I’m from Dublin and I studied sports science at St Mary’s University in London. I did a lot of sports growing up, GAA and soccer. My parents are from Kerry, so I had no choice!

I graduated in 2018 and did a master’s in food business strategy at UCD’s Smurfit School of Business. I always wanted to work in retail. My first job as a teen was working in a local convenience store. I like being customer-facing and working with people.

I went to a lot of grad fairs when I was doing my master’s and knowing that retail was the industry I wanted to work in, Lidl really interested me.

The 18-months are challenging, in so far as you are given quite a bit of responsibility very quickly but you get a lot of support too so it’s incredibly rewarding.

One of the best things about the job is the access to mentoring from a Lidl director. I met my mentor, a regional managing director, once a month and got incredible guidance.

I was due to finish the programme in March 2020 but by the previous December Lidl had already offered me a job as an area manager, so I started my area management training.

Initially I had five stores in counties Carlow and Kilkenny and recently moved to Dublin West. The way I see it, it’s the next stage in my development.

This interview first appeared in the Irish Times on July 18th 2023 - Why Lidl’s graduate programme is the fast-track to career success