Walmart to Woo College Students with $210,000 Store Manager Jobs

Walmart (Bentonville, AR) is targeting young people with a new career-training program in which high performers will have the chance to become store managers within two years.

The College2Career program is for recent college graduates and current college students within 12 months of graduating, including Walmart associates. Participants go through a mix of classroom training, hands-on experience and one-on-one mentoring with company leaders as they train to become a salaried member of management at a local store.

At the end of the training period, top performers are offered the newly created management job of “emerging coach,” with a starting salary of at least $65,000 a year.

Walmart says it sees the emerging coach role as an additional pipeline to develop high-potential talent into future store managers, with the latter role paying an average salary of approximately $210,000 in 2021.

Walmart will begin piloting the program this summer.