To warrant this long post being in this thread, let me say that interns and EITs are the highest hourly pay grades to my knowledge. I'm not sure what the actual paygrade is because I don't think there's anything higher than an N17 for hourly TMs. Buts most make more than a starting SrTL would make.
As far as interns go I will say this: some are great, most are at or below average, and there are more terrible ones than great ones. I think a lot of the problem is the quality of hires that our staffing teams attain.
Five years ago my store had three interns and they were all awful. They didn't even try to cultivate working relationships with anyone in the store other than the STL and their mentor ETL. They didn't ask for input and just expected buy in on their projects from the team. Not a one of them was offered a position after the summer.
Four years ago we had two interns that probably couldn't even spell their name right 9 times out of 10.
Nice people with just no common sense or business sense.
Three years ago my store had one intern who just couldn't get it. She was not cut out for AP. Somehow she ended up with an offer, but has done decent in a different workcenter from what I've heard.
Two years ago we had two interns. One of them had worked for target for a few years and one had no experience. The one who worked for target did a good job of maintaining a working relationship with the team. She had the benefit of just having to learn the things specific to her role, not all of Target. The other one was a relentless cheerleader (hadn't had time to see behind the curtain), but she also gave it her all and worked her butt off for her workcenter. They both got well deserved offers and actually stayed on as extended interns until they graduated. The one who had previous target experience left the company shortly after and the other has done okay as an ETL-HR. She's started to notice that all that glitters ain't gold.
Last year we had one intern who was very bright. Very inquisitive, smart, logical, and displayed high critical thinking skills. She was the dream intern. Asked awesome questions, valued everyone's experience, would ask questions of everyone in the store she came across. Went out of her way to be trained in all processes to really understand how all the systems and processes work together. My only regret for her is that she interned at my, what was at the time, shit show of a store. She is doing amazing as an ETL now and her team loves her.
I think the internship experience is more realistic now than it was a few years back. Interns are now supposed to basically train for about a quarter of their internship on all things Target, half of their internship for their role, and spend the last quarter running their workcenter with their mentor ETL overseeing things. Not necessarily how it works out, but it's much more realistic than having them follow around the exec team for most of the summer then work on a project they dreamed up for a few weeks near the end and slap together a presentation for the STLs and district team on their last day.
tl;dr
By and large many interns and new ETLs have no clue what they are doing. This is to be expected. A willingness to learn, treating people with respect, common sense, solid work ethic, and a dash of humility will take you far and earn you the respect of your peers and TMs.
Sadly a lot of new ETLs and interns see the word "executive" and understandably assume that they'll be working in an office writing and reviewing reports and never having to do grunt work. Then they get to their new store as an ETL with no clue how to actually run things and don't realize they have a team who is wont to trust a brand new leader when they've lost count of all the fresh eyed executives who have run screaming into the night.
It's not an easy gig, but I also don't think Target does a fair job of providing support and realistic expectations to their interns and new ETLs. Unfortunately for the company, Target has a historically systemic problem with poor leadership from the top down.
still tl;dr
Good luck and treat your team with respect.
