Archived So I applied to be an ETL last week

Status
Not open for further replies.
Joined
Oct 14, 2011
Messages
825
I wanted to conduct a little experiment last week. Really out of morbid curiosity than anything else. It occurred to me.... where the hell does target find these ETLs that come in to our store, know not a damn thing about anything, treat people like they are god even though they have essentially done nothing in life, and have zero leadership skills to speak of?

So I went on the Target careers site and looked for info on how to apply to be an ETL. It was an interesting experience just at this point because the hiring site for ETLs is completely different than for TMs. Basically the TM hiring site is designed for idiots with page by page answers holding your hand like they assume you would be too stupid to fill out a long form or anything more complicated than "Yes or No" check boxes.

Anyway - I found my way on the ETL site. I had to create a resume and fill out various forms of information.

So I applied as a person with no work history other than being a cashier at McDonalds, and I put that I was terminated after 8 months. I also claimed to have a bachelors degree in criminal justice (basically a degree well known as being near worthless), and also graduated with a 2.1 GPA. (barely passing all the way through college basically) I also put that it was from University of Phoenix online. (basically a joke online degree)

I just wanted to see what happened. Would they be interested in someone who basically came across as a worthless, lazy slacker who had basically a diploma mill degree from an online school?

So this Wednesday all of a sudden I get an email from some kind of human resources executive (not an ETL-HR, but someone with a district HR title). The email was personally written to me telling me that she couldn't get in touch with me at my phone number after trying "multiple times", and that she was extremely interested in interviewing me ASAP. She even offered to rearrange her schedule and let me pick a day and time, and even offered to do the interview as late as 8PM and on a weekend if it was convenient for me.

So yesterday I emailed her back with some BS story telling her I already found a new job and wasn't interested anymore. She wrote back with some fake ass "that's great news good luck on your future" email and told me to apply back if I ever was interested.

It was pretty god damn incredible. Here I was with only one job ever - McDonalds and got fired from it and one of the lowest level degrees you could possibly get.... and they were fully on track to possibly hiring me less than a week after I applied! Not only that, she was willing to bend over backwards to interview me whenever the hell I wanted. Too bad I couldn't take it further.... it would have been fun to see how much further I could have taken it.

This just proved my worst fears about why ETLs seem to be completely inept and worthless these days. They will take anyone apparently as long as you have that piece of paper that says degree on it.

And before anyone tells me Target is going to track me down.... I didn't do anything bad. Just applied for a job and backed out. No harm done, and they suspect nothing unusual. Also I used my brothers computer at his apartment (he has zero to do with Target), and also gave them his phone number knowing that he never answers calls from anyone not on his contacts. I also used a bogus email address I made up. And yes, my application was completely fake - fake name, fake degree, fake work history, nothing that would lead back to me. I also applied at a store 300+ miles away.

It was damn interesting though. When TMs come in to get interviewed at my store they are called by our rude ass clerical TM, told when to be there, and once they get there they are made to wait until an ETL decides they feel like doing an interview. No one sends them personal emails full of feel good BS. I have seen people wait in clerical for over an hour past when they had their interview scheduled and get treated like crap the whole way through. Apparently if you apply for an ETL job you are treated like Jesus Christ himself.

So next time we get a new hire ETL who acts like a king and treats every TM like they are not worth even making eye contact with I will be wondering if he was hired after getting termed from burger king.
 
I love this. We need more of this inside mole activity happening! It seems to be the norm now with a lot of us here, displeasure with our ETL's. When I first started 3 years ago, I was under the impression ETL's were former TL's that were promoted and climbed the latter (like any regular business). Not the case with Spot! They are hiring execs strictly on their degree with little to no idea of the Target brand. It's hard to blame assumptions and propaganda by team members when experiments like this prove us right!
 
While i agree it's interesting, it proves nothing aside from one application, in one district, at one time of year, received what appeared to be a generous interview process. No job was offered, no sample size was had... It's interesting, nothing more, nothing less.
 
Wow, this company is beyond pathetic.

My store is a training store for ETLs, it's ridiculous how much hand-holding the TMs have to do to get these people to grasp how to work on the sales floor. I don't know how any of them got hired. Well, I guess now I do know. Target has no standards beyond a fancy piece of paper.
 
This is indeed a bit disturbing. So to be a leader, no skills, a really short work history, and poor people skills, wow Target has really set the bar low for leaderships. Makes me wonder about the people who work at Corporate.
 
As I said many times, nothing surprises me at Target anymore. The longer I work for spot, the more I am not surprised.

But hey, don't fret guys, most of these brainless ETL's never last longer than a couple of years anyway, then we get a whole new crop in. I have outlasted dozens of ETL's and I am still hanging on...to what I have no idea!
 
Last edited:
Most of the new ETL hires I met starting around 2006 were recruited straight out of college.

I have talked to store managers for other stores around my last Target, and they said they have 10+ years retail & management experience where at most they just get called to attend a Target recruitment meeting. But never get called for interviews. Or nothing at all. Yet fresh out of college recruits get all the jobs.
 
it would be interesting to see if that was the case for several apps... did you just get in touch with a good hr person? if you apply in another region would the response be the same?

i treat everyone equally regardless of what is on their app. but ive seen etls openly mock our applicants. i wonder if the people in charge of online recruitment are any better.
 
While i agree it's interesting, it proves nothing aside from one application, in one district, at one time of year, received what appeared to be a generous interview process. No job was offered, no sample size was had... It's interesting, nothing more, nothing less.

^The voice of reason.
 
I told my etl-hr I would write a few great team cards for a moment of her time. I showed her this thread and she said there is a metric where university of phoenix graduates need to be hired 95 percent of the time. Within one week and you are green. Two weeks yellow, three weeks red, four weeks dark red, 5 weeks extra dark read, 6 weeks marroon, etc, etc.

Anyways let's also make sure we are asking our guests CIHYFS and lets try to get some redcards today. Now I have to wait fifteen seconds and ask "Hey team, is there anyone who can reply to this?"
 
I told my etl-hr I would write a few great team cards for a moment of her time. I showed her this thread and she said there is a metric where university of phoenix graduates need to be hired 95 percent of the time. Within one week and you are green. Two weeks yellow, three weeks red, four weeks dark red, 5 weeks extra dark read, 6 weeks marroon, etc, etc.

Anyways let's also make sure we are asking our guests CIHYFS and lets try to get some redcards today. Now I have to wait fifteen seconds and ask "Hey team, is there anyone who can reply to this?"

Are you kidding me???? They want 95% of ETLs to actually be from online "schools"??? I have seen everything now.
 
it would be interesting to see if that was the case for several apps... did you just get in touch with a good hr person? if you apply in another region would the response be the same?

i treat everyone equally regardless of what is on their app. but ive seen etls openly mock our applicants. i wonder if the people in charge of online recruitment are any better.

Mock in what way?
 
I told my etl-hr I would write a few great team cards for a moment of her time. I showed her this thread and she said there is a metric where university of phoenix graduates need to be hired 95 percent of the time.

I don't believe it. Maybe it's just in your district or state or something like that.... but literally every single ETL in my store went to local collages in my state. I even had classes with two of them.
 
I don't believe it. Maybe it's just in your district or state or something like that.... but literally every single ETL in my store went to local collages in my state. I even had classes with two of them.

I agree, I can't think of any logical reason that Target would have a policy like that.
 
I agree, I can't think of any logical reason that Target would have a policy like that.

Exactly. Online colleges do not have a good reputation with so many employers, I really don't think Target would be any different. They would definitely choose someone who graduated from a traditional college over an online college, however I could see them choosing an applicant with a degree from University of Phoenix over someone who has no degree.
 
I don't think they get paid that good for having to work 60 hour weeks.... Just saying.

What stores are you guys working at that ETLs are putting 60 hour weeks????

I am a TL and I am in constant observance of when ETLs enter and exit the building. (mostly to cover my ass) There are absolutely zero ETLs in my store who put in anything over 40 hours. Hell, I know for a fact our ETL-GE regularly puts in less - many weeks as low as 32 hours yet she is getting paid the same due to being salary.

Actually pay attention to when ETLs are in the building, and when you aren't there ask TMs who cover other shifts what ETLs were there. Eventually you will realize a lot of them never break 40 hours a week with perhaps the only exception being 4th quarter. Also pay attention to how they use your Sr TLs.... at my store they regularly schedule our Sr TLs to close at a minimum 4 nights a week by themselves, and often will have them be either the only opener or mid. This allows the ETLs to work much less because they are having your Sr TLs close. As long as they manage the schedule to keep at least one Sr/ETL in the building at all times it allows the others to work much less. At my store they are pro's at doing this.
 
Hats off to the ETL-LOG, my experience has been that they put in more work and have more dedication than just about any one else in the building.
 
unless they got a good team, then it's an easy job because they can go on auto pilot. And I was totally bull************ting in my last post in this thread. Bullseye is mostly bull************ anyway!!!
 
My old ETL-Log honestly used to work 15 hour days regularly. He was seriously the hardest working person in the store.

Suffice to say he recently left for greener pastures like all the good ones do, and was promptly replaced with a freaking monkey.
 
What stores are you guys working at that ETLs are putting 60 hour weeks????

I am a TL and I am in constant observance of when ETLs enter and exit the building. (mostly to cover my ass) There are absolutely zero ETLs in my store who put in anything over 40 hours. Hell, I know for a fact our ETL-GE regularly puts in less - many weeks as low as 32 hours yet she is getting paid the same due to being salary.

Actually pay attention to when ETLs are in the building, and when you aren't there ask TMs who cover other shifts what ETLs were there. Eventually you will realize a lot of them never break 40 hours a week with perhaps the only exception being 4th quarter. Also pay attention to how they use your Sr TLs.... at my store they regularly schedule our Sr TLs to close at a minimum 4 nights a week by themselves, and often will have them be either the only opener or mid. This allows the ETLs to work much less because they are having your Sr TLs close. As long as they manage the schedule to keep at least one Sr/ETL in the building at all times it allows the others to work much less. At my store they are pro's at doing this.

We're a higher volume Super-T. We never use SR.TLs for LOD... Don't think we have that many SR.TLs anyway. We close with at least 2 ETLs every night of the week. I suppose its possible for lower volume GM stores to have ETLs put in a lot less hours, but they work some pretty hefty shifts at my store (10 or more hours).

For what they get paid, all the hours + stress wouldn't be worth it in my opinion.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
I don't think they get paid that good for having to work 60 hour weeks.... Just saying.

Their paychecks are based on 50 hour weeks, but If there are alot of ETL vacations or heavy transition workloads, 60 is really common.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top