My understanding is that if I do the internship I can either get a SrTL or ETL job offered to me at the end of the summer. Am I wrong?
Internship preps you to be an ETL. You will only get offered an ETL position at the conclusion of your internship. There is no "Sr. TL" option... Especially since internship pay is generally higher then starting Sr. TL pay (I was paid $18.50 per hour during my internship and my extended internship September thru May)
So I could either:
1. Try for the internship and hopefully get offered a TL position
2. Try to get on the TL Bench and hopefully get offered a TL position
Which is better??
Go for internship. It is easier to go from intern to ETL... No hurdles to jump through with the benching process, etc.
Additionally, the internship will give you additional leadership and management experience then just a TL position. Should you decide to seek other employment after you graduate, the internship will look better on a resume.
My Sr's make 19+ at my store (one only being Sr for a year now) and base pay is 8.00 at my store.
But he is definitely right. I wish I'd done internship this summer rather than pushing for TL so much (this was partially because I thought the internship cut off date had already passed) I'm a TL now, but I'm considering pushing back my graduation in order to apply for internship next summer just because the promotion rate for ETL is like 80% campus (intern / straight up campus etl position offers) 10% internal 10% external (non recent graduates) and the internship it self has a ~75% rate of offer...
From what I have heard, it is REALLY hard NOT to get an offer after an internship... I had an advanced (2nd year) intern in my store, and she said that there was guy who totally screwed up his operational review (the final project for interns; it is a sit down version of a store walk with the DTL, BP's, other interns, other mentors, and the STLs) in the previous class and he still got an offer. In fact, the only person who didn't get an offer in my internship class was the guy who blatantly said that he didn't understand best practices and why Target did the things they did... Something that all TM's think, but never vocalize.
But yes, intern to ETL rate is right around 80%... As long as you show up, show interest in things, make an attempt to get to know the leaders (and more importantly, the TEAM MEMBERS) in your building, you will be fine. You will have bi-weekly statuses with your STL, so you should always know where you stand. If you don't, you are doing it wrong!!
And $19 per hour for SR's? Not bad... I had 2 newly hired Sr. TL's in my store and one made $16.50 and the other $18.00...
