Employment with Lowe's (Norman: home, salary, live in)

[mseisthe1]

I have an interview with Lowes Home Improvement for a finance/accounting position next week and since I am relocating to the area I wanted to know if anyone had any insight to share with me about the company, benefits, and corporate culture.

[QC Misfit]

I almost worked for them along time ago. My father-in-law works in one of the stores basically to stop going stir crazy. He says that they take care of the employees for the most part. As with anything though there are politics within the store. Assume yours will be in the office too.

They seem to be building still so that must be a good sign!

Good Luck if you live in the Lake Norman area you should have a decent commute too!

[jennej]

I was offered a position at Lowe's corporate two years ago and turned it down. I thought their benefits were pretty bad. They are probably on par with other retail businesses, but I've worked in the banking industry most of my career, so I wasn't ready to take such a huge cut in benefits. They only offered 2 weeks vacation, 6 holidays, no 401k match for 1 year, and no benefits at all for the first 89 days of employment. Medical/dental/vision seemed ok but that wasn't as important to me since I could get those through my husband.

Also, the salary they offered was terrible. I knew going in that they couldn't match what I was currently making, but I was unhappy at the job I had then and had heard good things about Lowe's, so I went ahead with the interview. They led me to believe they could come close to my current salary, but when it was all said and done, they were nowhere in the ballpark.

But even after all that, the biggest turn-off for me was the culture. We all know it's really hard to tell much from a few interviews, but I knew in my gut after talking to the recruiter and 3 other employees that it wasn't the place for me. I was so unhappy at my then-current job that I was going to make darned sure that I wouldn't be going from one bad situation to another. It just didn't feel right to me.

Now all that being said, I have heard positive things from people who work there. I'm really just going on what I gathered from a few interview sessions. So my advice to you is to put on your investigative hat to dig for as much info as possible during your interviews. And maybe a few other people will chime in here. Good luck!

[MommyV]

Since Financial positions are supportive functions and not the 'bread and butter' of retail firms, most of them don't pay well especially at the accounting and analyst levels. I don't have specific knowledge of Lowe's, but take a look at their earnings. Usually, companies look to cut in their administrative and supportive functions first when they're hurting and they'll do this by offerring lower benefits, salaries as well as overloading these people rather than maintaining proper staffing levels.

But all of this aside, go to the interview and ask all the questions that you can. Often times, whether a job is awesome or horrible depends on how you 'click' with your immediate supervisor.

Good Luck!