Archived You love what you do

[prim07]

Greetings all!

*if you want to ignore my ramblings, look below for the bolded question in which I'm curious of your answers*

I will be taking an internship with Target in the summer and I'm excited for it. I've read these forums long enough now to know that Target favors external hires for ETLs and how I'll be devishly hated as a result. Additionally, I've read the "Read before you sign your life away", so you can hold off on posting that one hardlinesmaster!

I have a great interest in management. I was extremely inspired by my past managers work ethic that it has caused me to apply for this intership and consider a career in such a role. I realize the hours are crap, but quite frankly, the same is applied for just about every management role.

In fact, my original career field, accounting, has its own host of horrific hours stories that make it no better. I might as well work someplace where I enjoy what I do (interacting with customers and coworkers). Will I enjoy it? That depends on me.

I don't want to be the type of manager that makes their employees leave work disgruntled and hating life. I want to foster a unique and enjoyable workplace. That's my mission with Target.

My question for you all, for those that it is applicable towards: who has had success with Target? Success can be anything you measure it by, so not simply a promotion, but anything you define as being successful. Why do you enjoy working for Target? Why do you find that to be the case? Is it your managers, or something else?

Thanks all, and I look forward to your responses!

 

[Hardlinesmaster]

Congrats on the internship! 401k is the big factor for me. I have lost my stl recently & morale is low. I try very hard to be positive for guest, other tm's & drive sales. Spot is a little out of focus, right now. We did have a forum member start as a tm & now is an etl with spot. I wish I was working at his store. His mgt believes internal hires for etl's.
Oh yeah, I would not of mention the thread on throw your life away to you. I would of referred you to the many interns threads instead.
Welcome!

 

[dabeastfromtheeast]

For me, the great success was going from BRTM to the DC. Went from living at my parents with crippling debt to now making more than some ETLs do

Part of it is the leadership; you can always be more successful with leaders who know when to instruct and encourage, but also (equally important) know when to leave you alone and just let you get the job done. Just my personal preference in leaders, but I really don't care much for GL's/TL's who act like cheerleaders for corporate. Guess I'm just a blue collar guy who like people with similar blue collar attitudes.

I also gauge my success by the fact that I love what I do. I keep having to deal with friends/other TMs who criticize my career choice, saying that there's better things out than working in a warehouse, but the way I see it, I enjoy throwing boxes and making dat ca$h munny. More than those critiquing me, I might add.

Anyway, that's my $.02, welcome aboard.

 

[prim07]

Congrats on the internship! 401k is the big factor for me. I have lost my stl recently & morale is low. I try very hard to be positive for guest, other tm's & drive sales. Spot is a little out of focus, right now. We did have a forum member start as a tm & now is an etl with spot. I wish I was working at his store. His mgt believes internal hires for etl's.
Oh yeah, I would not of mention the thread on throw your life away to you. I would of referred you to the many interns threads instead.
Welcome!

Is morale low because of the loss of the STL, or for other reasons? Also, do you have confidence that Target will effectively refocus their efforts? I do not ask these questions out of any worry, etc, but out of interest of your thoughts!

Thanks for the reply. If you have some of those intern posts at the ready, I'd be interested in reading through some!

For me, the great success was going from BRTM to the DC. Went from living at my parents with crippling debt to now making more than some ETLs do

Part of it is the leadership; you can always be more successful with leaders who know when to instruct and encourage, but also (equally important) know when to leave you alone and just let you get the job done. Just my personal preference in leaders, but I really don't care much for GL's/TL's who act like cheerleaders for corporate. Guess I'm just a blue collar guy who like people with similar blue collar attitudes.

I also gauge my success by the fact that I love what I do. I keep having to deal with friends/other TMs who criticize my career choice, saying that there's better things out than working in a warehouse, but the way I see it, I enjoy throwing boxes and making dat ca$h munny. More than those critiquing me, I might add.

Anyway, that's my $.02, welcome aboard.

Glad to hear of your success! I believe successful leadership is the biggest factor in enabling enjoyment and a successful career.

I'm currently in the position to also potentially do some onboarding with Wawa for a management position, and currently looking into Wawa's culture versus Target's to see where will end up post graduation (just two more semesters to go).

 

[Hardlinesmaster]

This stl change will be my sixth one. I ride wave & eventually I will hit the beach
A few threads:
http://www.thebreakroom.org/index.php?threads/question-about-executive-intern-program.324/
http://www.thebreakroom.org/index.php?threads/interview-for-intern.4614/
http://www.thebreakroom.org/index.php?threads/intern-full-time-etl-hiring-rate.8188/

 

[LadyCynide]

I absolutely love working at Target most of the time. In my store, the Team Leaders, and even our STL, actually care about us. Sometimes they ask unreasonable things of us, but they generally listen when we talk to them about it. The other positive thing about working at Target is, and call me a kool-aid drinker if you'd like, that we truly are a team, at least at my store. We have each others' backs, and we do everything we can to cheer each other up. You're working 12 hours and can't afford a meal that day? No problem. We'll buy one for you. Having a terrible day? No worries. We'll deal with all the idiots that come your way. Just call us up.

 

[RightArm]

Success... being personally complemented by your DTL over the state of your department. Being told over and over again that your department is hands down best in the district and TLs should be sent to your store to see how a department should be run. That was it for me. Then corporate started this hack job on hours to stretch their dollars (I guess) and while they still tell me my dept is best in district it's... ugh. So NOT where it used to be and not where I want it to be. *sigh* But if you were to ask me why I liked working at Target I would definitely have to echo LadyCynide. It's all about the team. They say "one team, one goal" and while I can't say we always do it with a huge smile on our faces and a song in our heart the fact is that we do what needs to be done to help each other out. I could work anywhere and deal with the kind of crap I deal with day in and day out... short hours, high demands, unrealistic expectations... but in the end it's the people you work with that makes the difference. Knowing that no matter how crappy things get that you'll always have one another's backs. That's why I'm still at Target. And yes, GOOD leadership matters. Where would we be without those leaders who are really tuned into the business and have their finger on the pulse and give us what we need in support when we need it most? Those leaders who know how to say "thank you" and recognize hard work and know when to acknowledge the horrific state of things in a positive manner? I'm fortunate enough to be in a store where the leadership is strong and supportive. There isn't a single ETL in our store that doesn't work every bit as hard as we do and many times even harder.

 

[Jill of All Trades]

Oh god you're so new and shiny it hurts!

We don't hate the ETLs for being hired externally. We are annoyed to have leaders who don't know the store.

What leaders have done to foster my success at Target has been to communicate amongst themselves and to give me frequent feedback about my performance. I say communicate amongst themselves because as a GSA, consistent policies are very very important to me. If I say "are you sure you want me to do X? Jason had me doing Y last I asked." that should trigger a discussion between you and Jason ASAP. Consistency on the small stuff adds up. As far as feedback goes, I don't find yearly reviews particularly useful compared to periodic casual discussions. If one of my cashiers does particularly well one shift I'll make sure to say "Thanks for all your hard work today you did great" or something else positive at the end of the shift. I like hearing the same thing. If keeping endcaps stocked is important to you, tell me, or thank me for getting it done quickly, or even let me know that you were disappointed that I didn't get to it soon enough. It's not like I don't know that stocking endcaps is part of my job, but if we're on the same page about focus and priorities, I like to know it.

 

[Dr Laytex]

Don't throw away four+ years of school to be a middle manager at a grocery store.

 

[tgtguy]

I absolutely love working at Target most of the time. In my store, the Team Leaders, and even our STL, actually care about us. Sometimes they ask unreasonable things of us, but they generally listen when we talk to them about it. The other positive thing about working at Target is, and call me a kool-aid drinker if you'd like, that we truly are a team, at least at my store. We have each others' backs, and we do everything we can to cheer each other up. You're working 12 hours and can't afford a meal that day? No problem. We'll buy one for you. Having a terrible day? No worries. We'll deal with all the idiots that come your way. Just call us up.

Reading your post made me smile ...reminds me of my store when I first started years ago. I wish my store was the same now !

 

[commiecorvus]

If your question is who has had success with Target, I had success.
My first years with Target were pretty successful.
I liked (not loved) my job, was supported, had some great coworkers, and enjoyed many aspects of the work.
I would have recommended working at Target to most people and did.

Of course, that was before the management changed and she decided that my disability was icky so they performanced me out.

 

[AllThingsTarget101]

The internship was great to me. I recommend it to a lot of people and I'm glad you're doing it. I was with the company for 3.5 years when I started the internship and it didn't hinder me at all, it actually benefitted me a lot. I was offered a job when I graduate in May and accepted at a pay rate I was surprised of. Most of the time it's around 50k and it was more than that. I don't know what my 5 year plan with Target looks like, however, it's a great opportunity straight out of college.