Archived APL

[NC50]

Hello everyone! Feel free to move this if it’s in the wrong place, but I was hoping there were some current APL/APTL’s (or anyone with the knowledge) on here who could help me out.

I’m currently a police officer and have been for a couple of years. Prior to that I did AP for Target and two other companies, as a TPS and then plainclothes for a contract company and another large store. I’m looking to move back to the AP world at least for the time being, for a variety of reason. I just got married and we have a child on the way, and the irregular schedule I have to work as a cop is making it super difficult to plan things out. On top of that, I live in an area where law enforcement doesn’t exactly make a lot of money. Overall, I just don’t feel like my current job is right for me at the moment. Maybe in a few years I’ll look at going back to it, but I digress.

I had my first two interviews for an Asset Protection Lead position at a small Target in the same jurisdiction I’m now a police officer in. I have one more interview (I believe with the DTL) but it looks good for me to get a job offer. My ultimate goal is to go ETL-AP, but I’m tired of waiting for one of those slots to come open in my area and went for APL. Anyways, I know TM’s start at $13 an hour now, does anyone know what I can try to get (realistically) coming into an APL role with three years of AP experience, three more years of law enforcement, and a Criminal Justice bachelors? I’d like to know what I can try to negotiate for before I go into this.

Also if anyone has any general info about the APL job that they’d like to share, anything encouraging me to go for it or pass it up, I’d appreciate it. This would be a pretty big career change for me to switch out of law enforcement, so I’d like to be as educated as possible.

 

[Hardlinesmaster]

Welcome! @TallAPGuy or @HardlinesGuy, please assist. You might want to stay as a cop, better benefits & pay.

 

[Yetive]

APL starts at 17/ hour. You can get up to 19 with experience.

 

[BoxCutter]

Welcome to TBR! Good luck!

 

[TallAPGuy]

I would highly advise against coming back to Target. Ive been here since 2014, and things have changed a lot.
For one, corporate is ditching almost all the ETL-AP positions, leaving them only in the highest risk stores and districts, so there are very few left outside the major metropolitan areas.
Since the start of the year, our store has been hammered by district leadership to stop setting fixed schedules, especially for AP. This means that as APL, you won't be able to work the same days and times week to week, you have to switch it up "to match business needs." And while not as bad as working in law enforcement, don't expect to spend any holidays other than Christmas Day and Easter with your family: you will be working Thanksgiving, probably all day and through the black Friday opening.
Speaking of family, you won't be eligible for health benefits until after one year of service, and you won't start accruing vacation time until 6 months. I can't remember if 401k starts at 6 months or a year.
I can't tell you a whole lot about the responsibilitiesof an APL, @HardlinesGuy is a better resource for that, but I do know that APL, your day-to-day will be more process issues, less stopping thieves. It really depends on your APBP and AP Director on whether they even want you focusing on apprehensions or not, and if they don't, you could very well get written up for getting too many and not focusing on store operation errors and internal theft.

TL/DR: I say avoid Target for this type of career move.

 

[HardlinesGuy]

What’s up brother. Welcome to TBR. I’m pretty busy right now, so I’ll make a second post later tonight with more details but a little about me:

I was a Hardlines TM, was a TPS Trainer for two years and an AP Team Lead for a little under a year before being hired as a Deputy Sheriff.

My TLDR is basically going to be stay in Law Enforcement. Target is not the company you remember it being. Again, give me a couple hours and I’ll make a second post with more info. Stay safe brother.

 

[TallAPGuy]

You might want to stay as a cop, better benefits & pay.

Unfortunately there are areas of the country that Target actually pays better than being a cop. Hell, there's counties here in California that I'd be paid the same hourly rate if I got hired there.

 

[NC50]

Unfortunately there are areas of the country that Target actually pays better than being a cop. Hell, there's counties here in California that I'd be paid the same hourly rate if I got hired there.

Yeah, unfortunately the quoted rates above really aren’t much less than what I make as a cop. My hourly works out to about $19 now, which is pretty insane to think about.

Thanks everyone for the help so far!

 

[Black Sheep 214]

With your education and experience, I would pass on a Target job. You can do better elsewhere. Scheduling at Spot is “ flexible” for “the needs of the business”, so you won’t find a set schedule there. Target today is nothing like the Target you knew a few years ago, and there is no job security anymore, it just takes some time to performance people out these days, for reasons apparently real or imagined. I would stay with law enforcement. My store had two ETL-APs quit for greener pastures in the recent past, just for reference. Good luck whatever you decide.

 

[Yetive]

As a leader, you get benefits at 90 days.

 

[HardlinesGuy]

Alright, so here’s my two cents. Mind you I have been gone from Target just shy of one year this month.

When I left, ETL-AP was a position in the process of being phased out heavily in favor of APTL positions. As an APTL the burden is with you to accomplish all ETL level tasks of the workcenter in only 40 hours, which, depending on the size of your team, may be a serious struggle. Your specific APBP (district AP manager) will also determine your experience. My APBP was very big on routines and intelligence. So. Many. Routines. We had so many weekly mandatory routines and audits and reports he wanted us to complete, we had minimal time to actually sit and watch for boosters. We had the intelligence, but not the time to act on it. Part of this was also in latge part due to the fact that I only had one TPS, and my APBP was very strict on the TPS being glued to the front door/checklanes.
Now, don’t get me wrong, the reporting and audits and routines and all gave me some awesome intelligence to work with, but with the time it took to drill all that data left so little time to attempt to resolve it, it felt useless in the end. At least three times I had $1,000+ pushouts while I was on the floor on the wild goose chase of trying to complete the overload of mandatory routines. That’s not even including safety routines or time spent actually helping out the other workcenters. Ultimately, it got to the point where the number of expectations got so high I gave up and started throwing applications every place I could to get out. The compensation was good at first but it wasn’t worth it in the end.

At the end of the day, this is all just my personal experience and I’m sure that other districts with other APBP’s are easier to work in. However, the overall culture of the company has changed drastically since I started. If you can, try and reach out to other AP teams in the area and ask what it’s like. It may be a good area. Overall though, I highly suggest staying in law enforcement, or seeking employment elsewhere.

Sorry for the rambling and mini-rant. Please feel free to reply or PM me with questions.

 

[BobBelcher]

APTL here who started as an APL for 8 months. First and foremost, welcome.😁 I asked for $19 starting and got it. In my district, the "T" in "APTL" can be dropped or added back real quick depending on the payroll needs of stores. APTL is nice because I can delegate routines to my TSS(s) letting me focus on internals or externals a lot more. As an APL you are expected to do the same amount of work as an APTL (without TSS) in the same amount of time due to the fact that you'll probably be in a low shortage/low volume store which doesn't mean anything since lv stores can be just as jacked up as hv stores. Normal day for me was auditing/counts, sweeps, externals, internals, pushing safety within the store, and filling out/going over all the required daily reports. It's a lot but it's all about time management. Your deadlines are known well in advance so on a weekly basis, it's just figuring what works for you. Sometimes I may focus on just externals for 3 hours a day for a whole week and the next week I may spend a whole 8-hour shift doing that. It's overwhelming at times but obviously can be fun and rewarding. The thing with Target AP is that you really have to be invested to push past the bullshit. The expectation is high in catching theft while staying ontop of your routines and nowadays there's little excuse for underperforming. As with anywhere, expect to get shit for stuff that isn't your fault. Scheduling isn't bad at all since I make my own schedule. Your holidays will be booked and very busy, don't expect a lot of free time and clopens will become your dark friend😅. I've worked AP at a lot of retailers and Target AP is at the top for me. As stated above, a lot has changed and is still changing right now but there are companies that are far worse than Target when it comes to AP if that was the career field you were looking into again.

 

[APBobbybooshay]

Everything states above is market specific. Take everything with a grain of salt. The pay actually sounds typical for the position and I don’t believe there will be any leway on that.

 

[NC50]

So just as an update I got an offer earlier today. I asked for $20 an hour just for the hell of it since they seemed to want me pretty bad and it would be an ever so slight pay raise for me (a couple hundred more a year believe it or not), and they gave it to me. I almost wish I would have went a little higher since I don’t know if they were prepared to offer me more.

I told the APBP that I would need to talk it over with my wife and think it through a little more, and he told me to take a week (he’s a former cop so he gets where I’m coming from). This week I’m going to reach out to the AP teams at some of the other Targets in my jurisdiction and see how our area is run. Either way I will provide an update with my decision.

The good news is my area is a pretty big metro with three other huge cities within 30 minutes so there are plenty of Targets and they almost all still have ETL-AP’s. The store I’d be working at is one of the lowest volume stores in the area, which I wouldn’t necessarily mind. It’s an old, relatively small, P97 format store that still doesn’t have P-fresh (only Target I’ve ever seen without one) but it did just receive a remodel so it doesn’t look like it will be going anywhere anytime soon. I’ve got a lot to consider, but I appreciate everyone’s help here.

 

[NC50]

Hey I’m sure nobody cares by now, but I just wanted to give a final update like I promised. I ended up being offered a police officer position at a small private university near me a couple days after I got the APL offer. The university pays slightly more, plus being a small agency with a low call volume, it will make it a lot easier for me and my family. It will also keep my police certification active, so I ended up turning down the APL job in favor of staying a cop, just somewhere else. I still think the APL job would have been a good second option, but I ended up finding a better route.

I just wanted to thank everyone again for all their help!

 

[BoxCutter]

Congratulations, good luck and stay safe.