Archived STL at...25?!? (rant)

[redcharmander10]

An acquaintance of mine has recently become a life coach and posts Youtube videos intended to motivate people. In this latest one, he interviewed his brother who is an STL. I watched it with interest, but my emotion turned when the brother said that he was promoted to STL...AT AGE 25. Furthermore, he even admitted he....one, had no idea what to do after graduation; and two, only applied to Target because they were at a career fair.

I am the same age as the brother when he was promoted - STL definitely isn't in my immediate future. My TL has been with Spot for far, far longer and cannot advance beyond Sr.TL because of no degree. There are many hardworking team members at my store who have been with the company for almost as much time (five years), if not longer and have not advanced to such high levels while people can manage an entire store after just three years with the only qualification having a bachelor's degree in (insert here).

i'm done.

*note: I am not posting the video for privacy protection reasons*

 

[commiecorvus]

But he's a young go getter who is setting an example for all of us peons about what you can do with a little hard work, a positive moral attitude, and Spot on your side.
You just don't understand that the company needs people like him out there to represent the the clean, young, ignorant, face of Target.
It wouldn't do to have a bunch of world weary, experienced people running things.
They might have opinions and ideas, might even know how to do it right.
Can't have arguments and dissension in the ranks, most especially if we're wrong.

 

[Retail Girl]

Our current STL came into his new role at 28. Under his direction our store has gone from red to green.

We had a former ETL promote to STL at 26. We're just glad she's gone.

 

[Hardlinesmaster]

Our new dtl is 30 years old. He was a stl for 4 years before that.

 

[thetargetman]

hmmm I am in a similar situation but maybe the person who got promoted at 25 just has natural leadership qualities. I am working with my stores TLs trying to learn more to see if being a Team leader is for me.

 

[Ringwraith917]

There are people who can perform at a level you wouldn't believe at such a young age. I couldn't have done it & probably will never have the ability to lead a store. But if he can run it well & earn the respect of his team, then more power to him. But I DO think spot needs to drop the whole needing a degree policy. We lose a lot of people cause they can't continue without one.

 

[bullseyekindaguy]

The New STL at my store was 23 before I left. She had only been with Target for 2.5 years.

Apparently being ETL remodel fast tracks you

 

[sher]

No one has an idea of what to do after grad. Even when you have a clear dream, it's harder to figure out which moves to make to get there, nowadays. My plan was to find some low hanging entry level job at a company with an internal pr dept and climb the ladder. Hasn't worked out yet. I don't think youth necessarily makes someone not good for the job, but I recognize that there are probably people in stores that can't move up because of the degree requirement who could do the jobs above them well.

 

[tgtguy]

My current Stl is 26. We ( the team) often talk among ourselves and wonder how in the hell Spot thinks he can run a store....but he talks the talk...and that seems to be all Spot cares about .

 

[Barcode]

25 isn't that young for being a store manager really.

 

[Retail Girl]

If they are getting the desired results, then their age shouldn't matter. Sure, they will make mistakes, but that will happen at any age.

 

[commiecorvus]

I would like to point out that I ran restaurant kitchens when I was that age but I worked my way up from the bottom.
Age is not the issue, experience, background, and competence are.

 

[tgtguy]

I think it all depends on the person some people are more mature at a younger age than others. Not all "young " stls are bad leaders just as all "older" stls are good leaders

 

[konk]

Ours had worked at spot before. Went off to the army, got a degree, and came back. Still hate him just as much as someone who had never worked here.

 

[konk]

Oh yeah and the store at which he worked didn't even open until I was already in college.

 

[wokkawokka]

Think about it, though. In terms of Target "image" and work ethic, you're at your best in your twenties/mid thirties. Most of our young ETL's are a year or two out of college, maybe in a serious relationship but only a few are married, and hardly any of them have started raising a family or buying a home. If you come into Target right from school, 22ish, you rarely have anything to "tie" you down so you can really throw yourself into your job if that's what you want. Couple a good work ethic, good personality and the ability to toss your personal life aside for your job, and yeah, I can totally see STL's at around 25 years of age. Now, will they be able to maintain that pace? That I can't say. I feel like hitting that benchmark at that age sets you up for early burnout if nothing else, unless you can continue to move up the ladder.

 

[RedDog]

Well lets be honest. It is no secret Target is not a company on the way up. Your not going to get the creme of the crop anymore who are hoping to jump into and up and coming company. Your going to get whatever is left. Their was a time when you could not come to Target from the outside to become an STL. You had to pay your does as an ETL in every area. By the time you became and STL you knew how to run a store from day 1. Now you walk into a store as a new STL and have to be taught on the job. I remember when a DTL was all knowing. They knew Target and the knew how to drive buisiness. Every visit you would learn something new. They expected Team Leads to be able to justify every end cap based on sales and profit margins. Now a DTL is just somebody who follows a check list and can recite best practice. Leadership at Target is a thing of the past.

 

[tgtguy]

Well lets be honest. It is no secret Target is not a company on the way up. Your not going to get the creme of the crop anymore who are hoping to jump into and up and coming company. Your going to get whatever is left. Their was a time when you could not come to Target from the outside to become an STL. You had to pay your does as an ETL in every area. By the time you became and STL you knew how to run a store from day 1. Now you walk into a store as a new STL and have to be taught on the job. I remember when a DTL was all knowing. They knew Target and the knew how to drive buisiness. Every visit you would learn something new. They expected Team Leads to be able to justify every end cap based on sales and profit margins. Now a DTL is just somebody who follows a check list and can recite best practice. Leadership at Target is a thing of the past.

Very well said.

 

[pfreshdude]

Well lets be honest. It is no secret Target is not a company on the way up. Your not going to get the creme of the crop anymore who are hoping to jump into and up and coming company. Your going to get whatever is left. Their was a time when you could not come to Target from the outside to become an STL. You had to pay your does as an ETL in every area. By the time you became and STL you knew how to run a store from day 1. Now you walk into a store as a new STL and have to be taught on the job. I remember when a DTL was all knowing. They knew Target and the knew how to drive buisiness. Every visit you would learn something new. They expected Team Leads to be able to justify every end cap based on sales and profit margins. Now a DTL is just somebody who follows a check list and can recite best practice. Leadership at Target is a thing of the past.

Why did they even change this...it seems like hiring straight from College with ZERO experience is a TERRIBLE idea.

 

[tgtguy]

Well lets be honest. It is no secret Target is not a company on the way up. Your not going to get the creme of the crop anymore who are hoping to jump into and up and coming company. Your going to get whatever is left. Their was a time when you could not come to Target from the outside to become an STL. You had to pay your does as an ETL in every area. By the time you became and STL you knew how to run a store from day 1. Now you walk into a store as a new STL and have to be taught on the job. I remember when a DTL was all knowing. They knew Target and the knew how to drive buisiness. Every visit you would learn something new. They expected Team Leads to be able to justify every end cap based on sales and profit margins. Now a DTL is just somebody who follows a check list and can recite best practice. Leadership at Target is a thing of the past.

Why did they even change this...it seems like hiring straight from College with ZERO experience is a TERRIBLE idea.

I am not sure why they changed it...Spot has changed a lot through the years and not for the better.

 

[Noiinteam]

For me personally age doesn't bother me. What irks me is the corporate world in general thinking a person with a degree , brought in from outside a company, will do a better job than someone who worked their way up thru the ranks.

 

[RedDog]

Well lets be honest. It is no secret Target is not a company on the way up. Your not going to get the creme of the crop anymore who are hoping to jump into and up and coming company. Your going to get whatever is left. Their was a time when you could not come to Target from the outside to become an STL. You had to pay your does as an ETL in every area. By the time you became and STL you knew how to run a store from day 1. Now you walk into a store as a new STL and have to be taught on the job. I remember when a DTL was all knowing. They knew Target and the knew how to drive buisiness. Every visit you would learn something new. They expected Team Leads to be able to justify every end cap based on sales and profit margins. Now a DTL is just somebody who follows a check list and can recite best practice. Leadership at Target is a thing of the past.

Why did they even change this...it seems like hiring straight from College with ZERO experience is a TERRIBLE idea.

What I have always been told was that instead of paying an experienced well trained person for 60K who knows your store, your area and your business and how to drive it, you can create a best practice and a check list cut costly training down to nothing and pay somebody 30K to follow it. Of course we all know leadership and running a store can never be done following a check list, it is in fact what Gregg and his followers at HQ seemed to think was a great idea.

 

[tgtguy]

For me personally age doesn't bother me. What irks me is the corporate world in general thinking a person with a degree , brought in from outside a company, will do a better job than someone who worked their way up thru the ranks.

Exactly! Just because you have a degree doesn't automatically mean that you are a great leader.

 

[JuicedSoftball1]

For me personally age doesn't bother me. What irks me is the corporate world in general thinking a person with a degree , brought in from outside a company, will do a better job than someone who worked their way up thru the ranks.

Exactly! Just because you have a degree doesn't automatically mean that you are a great leader.

Working at Target for 1000000 years does not make you a great leader also. I know countless TLs with no degrees who have been there for years who know Target inside and out but the things they say on the side, the complaining they do regardless of how hard they work negatively impacts them.

I was a hard working young hot shot who eventually graduated college but I had this attitude that Target owed me an ETL spot for all my years of service and hard work. I did the complaining on the side I bad mouthed ideas I thought were stupid to team members when I was their TL. All the stuff a true leader would not do. Sure I worked hard had the nicest looking departments got stuff done but I wasn't a true leader at the time. Eventually my attitude despite my hard work ethic burned my bridges at Target for ever doing anything more than I was doing at the time of the bridge burning. I have since grown up out of my 20's and now finally feel I am ready for the ETL responsibilities. I have found a job outside of retail that I love and now I am doing the equivalent of an ETLs roles in the non retail world. Yet there were plenty of say the right thing and be Mr. & Mrs Target who I could run circles around who got promoted to ETL because they were leaders and could say and do the right thing even though in terms of pushing freight or zoning or doing whatever they were not the best. Long story short age is just a number and being a certain age does or does not make you a great leader. For me the light switched on around 28. For others it might be earlier for others it may never come.

 

[Guest]

I think you should be forced to pay your dues. That means you work your way up to your promotion.