Guide to Working at Lululemon

You probably know Lululemon Athletica for its high-quality leggings and athletic wear. Now with over 500 stores, Lululemon is undoubtedly one of the major players in the athletic clothing industry. But have you considered what a career with the company would look like? This guide walks you through what you should know if you’re considering working at Lululemon.

• What Is Lululemon?
• Lululemon Jobs and Salaries
• Lululemon Benefits
• Lululemon Culture
• Lululemon vs. Nike
• How Does the Lululemon Interview Process Work?
• Takeaways

>>MORE: Explore merchandising at Lululemon with this Forage virtual experience.

What Is Lululemon?

Lululemon is a public athletic apparel company. It began as a yoga apparel retailer and quickly expanded into broader athletics and lifestyle. The Lululemon brand is worth over $14 billion and shows no signs of slowing down as it grows.

Founded in 1988 by businessman Chip Wilson, Lululemon started as a yoga/art studio turned standalone store in Vancouver, Canada. With 25,000 employees and counting between corporate and retail, the company has corporate offices in five countries on top of its 500 operating retail stores.

Lululemon stands out among its competitors because it emphasizes the importance of its community more than its brand. The company’s mission statement reflects its people-centric emphasis on “creating components for people to live longer, healthier, fun lives.”

Lululemon Jobs and Salaries

Lululemon offers two main career paths: retail store opportunities and corporate positions. In addition, there are many departments available within each track, including education and retail, creative, engineering and more.

Salaries vary by department, but, overall, Lululemon received an “A+” for compensation as it was in the top 5% of highest compensation compared to companies of a similar size. Here’s the breakdown:

Lululemon Education and Retail team

Working on the ground floor in Lululemon’s numerous retail stores, the retail and education team informs customers of the different Lululemon products and helps them make the best selections.

Here are the estimated salaries according to Indeed:

• Educators average about $15.88 an hour.
• Retail associates average about $15.49 an hour.
• Store managers average about $28.59 an hour.

Lululemon Creative Team

Lululemon’s creative team is responsible for the company’s image and innovative marketing strategies.

Between the marketing and design team, there are numerous positions. Here’s the breakdown of the estimated salaries for the most popular jobs, according to Comparably:

• Marketing managers average about $113,200 a year.
• Marketing associates average about $75,900 a year.
• Designers average about $105,000 a year.
• Graphic designers average about $75,800 a year.
• Junior designers average about $69,700 a year.

Lululemon Engineering Team

Engineers help build the Lululemon app, website and digital experience. According to Comparably, here is the estimated salary breakdown for an engineering career path at Lululemon:

• Lead engineers average about $131,200 a year.
• Senior developers average about $127,900 a year.
• Developers average about $100,000 a year.
• Junior developers average about $82,800 a year.

Other Lululemon Teams

• Operation positions: Operations oversee the day-to-day running of datasets and applications to keep the company going strong. Operations managers make an average of about $100,100 a year, while business analysts make an average of about $96,800 a year.
• Product positions: The product team is responsible for seeing products through ideation to launch. Junior product managers make about $100,500 a year, product managers earn about $126,900 a year, and senior product managers make about $147,500 a year.

>>MORE: Learn what the Planning team at Lululemon does with this Forage virtual work experience program.

Lululemon Benefits

While working for Lululemon, you receive some generous perks. Although the specifics of your benefits depend on your position and hours per week, compensation packages may include:

• Sweaty Pursuits: Lululemon is serious about putting a healthy lifestyle at the forefront of the company as it allocates a monthly allowance for employees to reach their health goals.
• Parental leave: No matter your position, Lululemon gives up to six months of paid leave for new parents, including maternal leave, paternal leave and adoption leave.
• Employee stock purchase plan and other savings: The company offers an ESPP to help workers buy Lululemon stock.
• Employee discount: Substantial discounts on Lululemon products are available to all employees, but the amount varies based on part-time or full-time status.

Lululemon Culture

So, what do the employees working for Lululemon say about the company? According to Culture 500’s review of Lululemon’s employee reviews, collaboration is the most common positively discussed quality at Lululemon. On the other hand, the most common discussed negative quality is execution.

Lululemon’s culture gets rave reviews, as shown by its ratings across different professional development sites. Employee reviews from Comparably give the overall culture at Lululemon a 4.6 out of 5 stars. This year, Lululemon ranked #9 on Glassdoor’s Best Places to Work 2022.

According to Comparably, Lululemon Athletica earns an “A” for employee happiness, which is in the top 10% of companies of a similar size. The company also earns an “A+” in the gender score compared to other companies of a similar size.

Impact Initiative

In 2020, Lululemon started the Impact Initiative, which has been implemented into its company goals. Lululemon breaks down its agenda around sustainability and social impact into three subsections: Be Human, Be Well, Be Planet.

Be Human

Being Human for Lululemon is all about empowering its ambassadors and employees, ensuring equitability, diversity and growth are at the forefront. The company is currently working on achieving total gender pay equity by 2022 and Fair Labor Association Accreditation by 2024.

Be Well

Being Well is all about physical, mental and social stability. The primary goal in this area is to provide access to wellness tools to over 10 million people by 2025.

Be Planet

Being Planet for Lululemon means being environmentally friendly. By 2025, Lululemon aims for its products to be made of 75% sustainable materials. Another primary goal is to reduce single-use plastic in its packaging by 50%.

>>MORE: Learn what the Merchandising team at Lululemon does with this virtual work experience program.

Lululemon vs. Nike

Lululemon and Nike are both huge athletic clothing companies. So, what sets Lululemon and Nike apart? Here’s how they do in a face-off:

• Per Glassdoor, Lululemon employees rated the company 4.4 stars, while Nike employees rated their company 4.1 stars out of 5.
• Per Glassdoor, 82% of Lululemon employees had a positive business outlook for the company, while 73% of Nike employees had a positive business outlook.
• Per Glassdoor, Lululemon employees also rated their compensation and benefits, senior management, and culture higher than Nike employees.

How Does the Lululemon Interview Process Work?

According to Glassdoor, 66% of interviewees had a positive interview experience with Lululemon. They also reported that the difficulty rating of the actual interview is 2.5 out of 5, representing an average difficulty.

As for the process itself, more than 50% of the interviewees noted the interview process was between two-to-three weeks long. The vast majority of interviews also took place in group settings, on-site.

If you’re wondering what kind of personality it takes to be the right fit at Lululemon, take a look at its purpose, vision and values. The company emphasizes the importance of personal responsibility, connection, inclusion, courage and fun.

Prepare for any interview by familiarizing yourself with these common interview questions for all careers.

Takeaways

• Lululemon is an athletic apparel company that emphasizes building community.
• The company offers job opportunities down the retail path or corporate path.
• Collaboration is the most common positively discussed attribute among Lululemon employees, while execution is the most negatively discussed attribute.
• Most interviewees found the interview process a positive experience and rated it as average difficulty.

Image credit: Jared Rice on Unsplash