Archived TL interview -Help

[Meli4Target]

hello everyone!

A quick background about me. I was a PPTL for about a year before I left spot to work as a flight attendant. Unfortunately it didn't work out & later got re-hired at spot as a P.A.

Fast forward to NOW, I have my TL interview coming up at the end of August (just been informed about the date today!)

Here's the dilemma. When I first went through TL interviews we had those leadership expectations that I'm sure is seared into our brains (manage execution, resilient & adaptable, etc) but now those went away. I have the updated one, but don't understand how the questions are geared to being curious, or being bold, etc. Is there anyone that recently gone through interviews , what type of questions were they? Any help/insight is appreciated! Thanks 🙂

 

[Hardlinesmaster]

Be yourself, you will be ok.

 

[cmat21]

Is this the same store? If so, interview should just be a formality

 

[astronautMD]

I just recently passed my TL interviews after being away from target for a year. Definitely be yourself and be confident. As for leadership expectations, you really only need to lock down like 2-3, and use for strengths and weaknesses. Communication ("communicates well") is a biggie. Talk a lot about communication and being transparent and contributing to the success of the store in a global way (not just worried about your own dept). Drives for Results is another big one.

I actually noticed, in my first interview that the interview packets the ETLs use state a Leadership Expectation at the top of the question they are about to ask you, so if you are sitting close enough you can glance at it before they ask you the question and tweak your response to fit that specific expectation. But that said, I don't think its a dealbreaker if you're off the mark a little with that, you just need to be able to speak to your abilities as a leader and show that you can rise to any challenge and overcome any obstacle.

To prep, I basically wrote down like 8 scenarios dealing with various issues- some of them about a specific person who was hard to deal with, times I had to work closely with/challenge a superior or modify a process to be more efficient. Definitely have a scenario about making a mistake, and how you learned from it or somehow came out on top. For about a week in my spare time I cumulated a list of questions I found that they might ask and just kept asking myself all of them again and again until the answers started coming naturally. If you nail down your scenarios and you really believe the things you've done have made you ready for this challenge, it will be easy to mold them into answers for any scenario-based question.

And if you really feel like an overachiever, you can try to remember to use all the key phrases- challenge upwards, peer buy-in, team culture, etc. It sounds like you have a lot of time, so use it well! Good luck

 

[Spitfire]

The new leadership expectations (be bold, curious, accountable, one way) are really vague, which I think is Target encouraging you to put things in your own words rather than Target-speak.

Instead of focusing on whether your answer embodies "be bold" or "be curious," just focus on what the question is asking and answer it completely. The biggest way you can mess up your answer is to not address what the question is asking. Understand what they're really trying to figure out. They want to know things like how you handle problems, how you manage execution, etc. Explain that in your answers by clearly telling the situation, explain what you did in that scenario that proves you can do x, and then the results of your work.

Another tip I got from my ETL-HR is brevity! Try to aim your answers at the 90 second mark. If your answer is too long your point will get muddled, and these are people who understand (for example) what maintaining a PTM area means. You don't need to go into detail about what the team did; they want to hear how you managed the team, what you did to set yourself up for success, how you dealt with any problems along the way and how it turned out.

Also, know your district's/region's focuses and buzzwords. For us, right now we're big on Driving Profitable Sales and Building Routines. In the last sentence of your answer, try to tie your result back to a buzzword or leadership expectation.

 

[Meli4Target]

UPDATE: I know its late, but i passed my interviews!! patiently waiting on the bench, don't think ill be going anywhere anytime soon with Q4 literally being here. However, my ETL-HR last week was asking me questions like, "would i be open to leaving stores?" "What does your target history look like, what positions have you done?" etc, Don't know why she was asking.

 

[smashandthrash]

They are seeing where you might be a good fit as a TL and what to tell other store's leadership if you're open to going to another store.

 

[SFSFun]

UPDATE: I know its late, but i passed my interviews!! patiently waiting on the bench, don't think ill be going anywhere anytime soon with Q4 literally being here. However, my ETL-HR last week was asking me questions like, "would i be open to leaving stores?" "What does your target history look like, what positions have you done?" etc, Don't know why she was asking.

Congrats!

Those questions sound like there is or is about to be an opening at another store for a position other than what you have expressed interest in.

 

[HRZone]

I am in the process of prepping for TL interviews and I feel like I need to add more target words to my situations but I can't think of that many. Can anyone help? Thanks in advance.

Check out the thread called "Target Talk" in the general chat

 

[Lazy]

UPDATE: I know its late, but i passed my interviews!! patiently waiting on the bench, don't think ill be going anywhere anytime soon with Q4 literally being here. However, my ETL-HR last week was asking me questions like, "would i be open to leaving stores?" "What does your target history look like, what positions have you done?" etc, Don't know why she was asking.

Congrats on passing. I still remember mine. I thought I failed since I was so nervous.
I got interviewed q4 last year and made TL a week later. I was offered a spot day of interview.

 

[Lights]

I just recently passed my TL interviews after being away from target for a year. Definitely be yourself and be confident. As for leadership expectations, you really only need to lock down like 2-3, and use for strengths and weaknesses. Communication ("communicates well") is a biggie. Talk a lot about communication and being transparent and contributing to the success of the store in a global way (not just worried about your own dept). Drives for Results is another big one.

I actually noticed, in my first interview that the interview packets the ETLs use state a Leadership Expectation at the top of the question they are about to ask you, so if you are sitting close enough you can glance at it before they ask you the question and tweak your response to fit that specific expectation. But that said, I don't think its a dealbreaker if you're off the mark a little with that, you just need to be able to speak to your abilities as a leader and show that you can rise to any challenge and overcome any obstacle.

To prep, I basically wrote down like 8 scenarios dealing with various issues- some of them about a specific person who was hard to deal with, times I had to work closely with/challenge a superior or modify a process to be more efficient. Definitely have a scenario about making a mistake, and how you learned from it or somehow came out on top. For about a week in my spare time I cumulated a list of questions I found that they might ask and just kept asking myself all of them again and again until the answers started coming naturally. If you nail down your scenarios and you really believe the things you've done have made you ready for this challenge, it will be easy to mold them into answers for any scenario-based question.

And if you really feel like an overachiever, you can try to remember to use all the key phrases- challenge upwards, peer buy-in, team culture, etc. It sounds like you have a lot of time, so use it well! Good luck

Thanks soo much for this. I think I just past my TL interviews because of your advice and tips. I did 6 scenarios and I should of done the 8 because I had 8 questions between two interviews. I really used all 6 scenarios which were flexible enough to be used in almost every question they asked I just had to modify the scenario a bit to the question. I then had to come up with two on the spot but that was no problem. MY STL and HR-ETL said my answers were high scope and they really enjoyed my interview but I get a for sure answer next week.

If your curious or if it helps for anyone the questions I remembered were.
Tell me a little about yourself.
Tell me about a time you made a mistake.
Tell me about a time you had to deal with a big problem.
Tell me about a time you had to use communication to deal with a challenging team member.
Tell me about a time you had to modify a routine for a better results.
Tell me about a time you had to challenge your superiors.
Tell me about a time you had a touching moment with a team member.