Forget law or the City, graduates after the big money must head to Aldi

WORKING for the Aldi supermarket chain is now as lucrative for graduates as being a lawyer or an investment banker, a new report has found.

The group is offering graduates £44,000 and a company car, which is the same salary as many of the country’s top law firms, according to the annual Graduate Market study.

The competitive package represents the German company’s drive to tempt high calibre graduates on board as it seeks to take on more established rivals with a bigger market share.

Graduates who win training contracts at some of the country’s leading law firms – including Allen & Overy, Hogan Lovells, Slaughter & May, Herbert Smith Freehills and Norton Rose Fulbright – are paid a starting salary of £44,000.

“People assume the best starting salaries are in the City or at law firms,” said Martin Birchall, managing director at High Fliers research. “But Aldi are one of several in the retail sector who are really investing heavily in their new graduates.”

Lidl, a fellow low-priced supermarket chain, pays graduates £40,000 while Amazon pays around £35,000.

“Aldi started recruiting in the UK 15 years ago, and it joined our top 100 firms 12 years ago,” Mr Birchall said. “Retail used to be one of those areas where it was towards the bottom in terms of starting salary, it is right up in the top few now.”

A report published today, titled Graduate Market in 2018, examines the top 100 graduate employers. The list is compiled by analysing interviews with 20,000 final-year students about which company they believe offers the best opportunities for graduates.

In 2002, Aldi was ranked 65th and has been steadily climbing up the ranks. It has been in the top five since 2013, and this year it was ranked third, after Price Waterhouse Coopers and the civil service fast stream.

On the graduates page of its website, Aldi says: “You’ve probably heard that we give our graduates a fantastic package (including an Audi A4) and that it’s ‘really hard work’. The programme lasts for 12 months and, yes, it’s tough ….

“By week 14, you could hold the keys to at least one store. Eventually, you could be running your own multimillion pound business,” it says.

Elsewhere, the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) entered the top 100 for the first time, in 93rd place, after a graduate recruitment drive by the security services.