Pros
Great work life balance/ amazing benefits/ and as other reviews mentioned gets lots of opportunities to learn tons of different skills. Display building/ having development chats with crew/ HR etc
Cons
Trader Joe’s promotes hard workers into the mate position with or without manager experience. This is a negative because then you’re trusting someone to lead who may not know how to lead or even have the awareness this is what the job entails. This would be ok if there was proper training in place but unfortunately there is not! This position is not for the faint- you take a lot of hard knocks from crew for some of the dumbest feedback I’ve ever heard! Trader Joe’s teaches mates to lead but don’t manage. It’s a fine line to balance. What I mean is instead of being able to say “Joe I asked you to do X why is it not done?” Crew Will complain to the captain that your micromanaging or overbearing instead you’d be encouraged to phrase the question “ hey joe I just wanted to see how you were doing working on X”. I’ve seen many mates be ruthlessly used by crew because they want to be everyone’s best friend and I’ve seen mates who work hard being penalized by crew because they hold others accountable. Your experience largely depends on you region/ captain/ and regional! In addition it is extremely physical and often you are doing the work of several people. Trader Joe’s doesn’t give raises to mates solely based on work ethic. It’s extremely bias and very much a favorites game and based on seniority over ability! As other reviewers stated, often you’re making the same as those you lead unless you stay with the company many years.