Target reviews

Target's fast paced culture makes it possible to learn a lot in a very short amount of time. There are opportunities for advancement and the pay was competitive for the industry. Work life balance is possible and everyone has a great deal of respect for each other.

My first day of work was really tiring. As part of my job on the sales floor, I push around a shopping cart full of items that were either misplaced or returned and put the items back on their respective shelves. Usually the merchandise in the carts are sorted so that everything in the cart is roughly in one department (for example - toys, electronics, or sporting goods). The first cart I got with which to work was pretty disorganized. Being the inexperienced and inefficient person that I am, I ran all over the store trying to put everything in its place. Eventually I learned that I could just give the items that were not in my main department back to the sorters so that they could put them in the correct carts. Even still, I was on my feet the whole day, rarely standing still. The other main part of my job is to ask almost anyone and everyone “Can I help you find something?” It’s both sad and laughable, really, that I’m supposed to ask customers (guests) if they need help on my first day on the job. I need help helping them! It’s true, I shop at Target all the time and know where many things are in the store, but there is a lot I don’t know. I would have thought the orientation yesterday would have taught me, but it didn’t. I would have thought the “training” today would have taught me, but it didn’t. Speaking of my “training,” I really didn’t get much training. My trainer showed me how to read the shelving codes so that I can put things in their places (which someone else had actually told me right before he did), and that was it. He said that I would learn where everything is over time. After my initial “training,” I rarely saw my trainer all day. I was on my own a lot, barely seeing any other Target team members around. I did get more help from another peon like me though (he taught me how to use the scanner gun thing so I can look up the location and price of anything in the store), and the LOD (leader-on-duty) also gave me some tips when I randomly ran into her while trying to familiarize myself with the store layout. By the end of the day, I ended up learning where almost all of the departments are, and I was asking “Can I help you find something?” more often. It’s nice when I can actually answer the guests’ questions, but sometimes I really don’t know the answer. I didn’t have a walkie talkie (a “walkie” in Target-speak) today, so I couldn’t easily ask my team members for help. Oh well. Maybe tomorrow will go more smoothly. I’m probably going to lose so many calories from this job.