What is the most sought after position as an ETL? I haven't been told what store or what department I'll be in charge of but curious to know pros and cons of them all.
Fun question, I am not an ETL but if I could rank them in terms of desireability.
For me personally I would say HR and AP would be my top choices (even though the latter is reportedly being phased out). In the biggest stores HR and AP can avoid LOD shifts and still make an executive salary.
AP is great because of the opportunities. I helped my ETL AP nab someone and the adrenaline rush was amazing. I was kinda jealous that's his job each day? Being a detective in a way and I do believe it's a job that could translate well outside of Target. Biggest challenge is probably that while you can apprehend a criminal. Target is also very conscious of a lawsuit and some AP folks on here report feeling like their hands are tied behind their back.
HR is also amazing for Target. You get to connect with people and it's really great experience getting to manage over a 100 people at a F500 company. Also someone put this so well earlier, ETL HRs often leave Target for really good jobs since they get executive human resource experience which is required in the corporate world for HR jobs. Also Target has fairly lenient hiring standards. If you hired someone with a criminal record at Microsoft it might cost you your job but Target is very good about giving people a shot. HRs job is to throw fun events for the team, maintain paperework, increase hiring flow and keep a pulse on the team. I know lur, acapaia and Mars love their jobs and we are simply tms
Of the other ETL positions
ETL Ops - not many stores have them and they are being phased out already but its easy. You have plano, pricing, backroom day and instocks. At my store all our tms in those work centers were highly competent hardlines, softlines, cashiers who moved up. Those positions are rarely external hires. So while my store has plenty of hardlines cashiers and softlines people who are bums all our plano pricing backroom day and instocks people earned their job and excel at it. Even with our ops getting let go we have run very smoothly because of great team leads. Our ETL Ops never did anything by the way. 60K to sit on her phone and text.
EtL Log really depends. In an overnight store its great. My log has 4 days on and 3 off. Unlike the others ETLs who do 5 on and 2 off. ETL log at a 4am or 6am store is a lot more difficult IMO. You have not just a huge flow team and a backroom early morning but also pricing, instocks, plano, and regular backroom. Very stressful stuff.
ETL hardlines and softlines. I don't know too much about these positions. The nice thing is a lot of these ETLs get multiple team leads. We have 3 in each. I wouldn't like this job though because they often get a lot of external hires which means a lot of hit and miss. Turnover for their teams is generally pretty high.
Worst ETL position IMO is no question ETL GE. Not that it's hard but it's just kinda bs how if your team doesn't sell red cards your are a failure. My old ETL ge would do push-ups on a lane if we sold red cards. It was embarrassing. He would also be like "Hey team if we sell 20 red cards today we can meet our goal, when we had 20 for the whole week prior" Our ETL ge now is a nice gal but she's a cheerleader type and it's kind of lame. Our SR GSTL is respected and she makes things tick.
. Good luck!
