First of all, congratulations for being considered for Asset Protection. In my opinon, it's one of the best jobs in the store. First off, a few basics. Asset Protection = the entire security team, made of ETL-AP's, APTL's, APS's, and TPS's. ETL's and APTL's are fairly self explanatory. APS's, or Asset Protection Specialists, are undercover team members who blend in with the guests to observe people and make apprehensions. TPS's, or Target Protection Specialists, wear the blue security uniform. We deter theft by being a visible security presence in the store, and responding to general security and safety issues. If you are just starting out in AP, it's a 99% chance you'll be a TPS.
1 - Not an issue. This job is more about brains than brawns. You need to be able think through tricky situations. Having some muscle behind you to help make tricky apprehensions wouldn't hurt, but it's not a big enough role of AP to warrant concern. Apprehensions shouldn't be getting that violent anyway.
2 - I was in the same situation. I started as a Hardlines TM making $9.00/hr, and promoted to TPS right around review time, and went up to $11.30 something. Part of that was also due to base pay being raised to $10, but regardless. Most TPS positions start at around $11.00/hr. Some more pros:
- Your hours are guaranteed so long as you are doing your job. While the Hardlines team will be fighting to get more hours, you will always have the same hours in AP, up to a maximum of a guaranteed 40 hours. Talk to your ETL about this before making a decision.
- You get to learn a completely different side of retail that most people don't realize exists. You'll learn more about the back end of retail and the different processes that make the store tick, and why certain things are the way they are.
- You'll get to learn some interesting technology, like the camera system, and the various different online reports AP uses to investigste shrink.
- While you will have daily routines to complete every day, every day also has the potential to offer you a new situation. From a theft, to an argument between guests, to an incident in the parking lot, there's always potential for something to happen to change up the day.
- If you call out or can't work a shift, the store won't grind to a halt without you. While that's not an excuse to not show up for work, you don't have to worry about angry LOD's looking at you because the zone didn't get done as a result of your call out.
Some cons:
- Sometimes you'll get backed up with everything that goes on, and have a lot on your plate. I once had 7 incidents take place in a single shift. I couldn't get more than 5 minutes into my investigations without being called out again.
- Sometimes absolutely nothing happens. While that doesn't sound like a bad thing, if all of your routines are done and there's truly no busy work for you to do, you'll just be standing at the doors/front lanes.
- You can't get distracted easily. On a slow day it's easy to get bored and play on your phone, but in that 60 seconds of goofing off, something can walk out the door. While you can't catch everyone, it's disappointing to know you got beat for merch while playing on your phone. I was guilty of this one when I first started, and it's a lesson learned.
- You can't make apprehensions, only try to deter theft.
- This might not be a con for you, but you'll need to confront people with dishonest intentions, who will lie to you, and use your best judgement on how to handle the situation. I'll explain more below.
3 - Target as a company mainly wants the TPS to be the face of security, and in part, guest service, for our honest guests. They want TPS's standing near the front lanes and doors for the majority of their shift to deter shoplifting (which I'll tell you, it only deters the low level amateurs, not the pros) and help those walking in. That being said, some ETL's don't buy into that and will actually give you the freedom to catch bad guys. Your daily routines would consist of counting and auditing merchandise counts, applying merchandise protection, reviewing video from empty packages, and lookong for theft. In the event you observe a theft in progress or a team member suspects a guest is stealing, as a TPS, if you're alone at the time, your job would be to attempt to recover the merchandise by confrontng the subject and trying to get them to drop what they're stealing, usually by offering extreme guest service. For example, if someone is concealing headphones, corporate wants you to say something like "Hi there, I saw you were looking at headphones. Did you need help with those? Did you want a basket to carry that pair you had?" That being said, sometimes you've gotta break the rules a little bit and be more direct to get results. "Take those headphones out of your pocket, and get out of my store." Just gotta be sure you're 110% certain before approaching and being that direct, as if you're wrong and you're accusing an honest person, you're fucked.
4 - It's challenging, but rewarding. You get to go home everyday knowing you helped keep people safe. In comparison to Hardlines, it's much more difficult. While Hardlines is responsible for just helping out and making the store look nice, the AP team has to pick out the few dishonest guests out of the hundreds of honest ones. The amount of work you'll do every day is comparable to any other work center, it's just the type of work and the difficulty of it that changes. Opposed to trying to push a ton CAF's in an hour, you're trying to identify who stole the merchandise out of two empty packages.
All things considered, I love my job and I'm glad I moved up to AP. The occasional headache is worth it. I suggest trying to sit down with your ETL-AP and asking them some of these questions to get another view. Feel free to PM me or ask again here with any other questions! Best of luck either way!
Also, I'm gonna call in
@TallAPGuy and
@garbage for some backup here. Any other advice, guys?
