EXTREMELY good culture and work-life balance - Graduate Programme Mars Employee Review

5.0
Dec 11, 2025
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

I previously worked in finance, Mars is definitely a completely different vibe. People have very strong respect for each other and work-life balance, 9-5 style here. Very flat hierarchy, I can talk to senior directors who are 3/4 layers below the CEO any time I want. Dog-friendly, wfh-friendly, flexible working. Tons of great events for graduates, like proper Halloween gatherings, Christmas events, etc. (tho I suppose it's not specific to here, but they do put in strong effort)

Cons

Some offices are quite far (e.g., Slough, Waltham, Castle Cary), but these offices tend to have very strong wfh (once a week, sometimes even once a month if its VERY far). Diversity could be better, though there's very strong active effort from management to recruit not just white people lol Top 80 percentile salary, so it's really decent, but don't expect IBD or Consulting-like compensations (obviously lol)

Explore other reviews about Mars

3.0
Jan 2, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

- Company car (fuel card, insurance, etc) - Good benefits - Great brand exposure/understanding of CPG sales at the retail level - Annual sales meeting is fun, but exhausting - Simple job

Cons

- Micromanaged by leadership (EVERYTHING is tracked) - Extremely repetitive work (not much freedom in creating your schedule, same tasks over and over, etc.) - Dealing with retail management. If you don't have respectful store managers, good luck. A lot of your KPI's are out of your control and your experience relies on your store. - As DOZENS of other people have said, this is a merchandising job - not sales. You are responsible for placing product on the sales floor after consulting with the store (basically asking management who only views you as free manual labor). There is no commission/incentive for producing positive results. - SEASONS: this is the reason why you have this job if you're working with the Walmart channel. You have unrealistic expectations set from leadership to pack out hundreds of heavy cases of candy each holiday season after begging store management for space to place it. Most of the stores' back rooms are a complete mess and a lot of your product is inaccessible. Long days are expected with no additional pay. - Work/life balance: It is frowned upon to work the bare minimum of 40 hours/week. Your stores get backed up while you're on PTO. Overall: an okay role This isn't a bad job by any means, you just need to know what the role entails before taking this job. You need to relocate for any future opportunities within the company.

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Mars Response
5mo
Thank you for taking the time to write your review. We’re sorry to hear your experience with us has not been positive. We aim to support our Associates in every way throughout their time with us and are committed to their wellbeing and development. Please reach out to the independent, confidential team at ombudsman@effem.com, and we look forward to discussing this further.
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