The last job I had was my internship with Target as a Executive Team Leader Management Intern. To be honest, I remember the first job description I saw for the internship was when I applied for it through Oregon State University’s Handshake portal, and the description was very vague and more on what Target is about. The reason I applied for it was because Handshake said that my profile matched with all of the Target internship’s preferences for the job. So really, initially I didn’t pay much attention to the job description before I applied as I was keeping an open mind to all my internship options, but also thought I would never really end up working at a retail store.
Once I continued interview after interview with Target, I decided that the internship and working for the large corporation would be a great experience in management training for me. I learned more about what the job entailed during the recruiting process, but not really with any paper job description aside from what I first saw on Handshake. When I got to orientation for the internship was when I was given a formal handout of job description expectations, but I already knew what the expectations were for the job from the interviews before I accepted. I will say that the descriptions I was given later in the recruiting and on-boarding process did somewhat align with what I actually did during the internship.
The description made it seem like I was going to be doing a lot of the tasks I learned independently, but that never really happened. I was always alongside another Executive Team Leader that was training me, not really doing tasks alone because I was new to retail – so that did make sense. The descriptions did align with what they promised and what I was able to do for leadership experience and managing multiple teams, sales, giving input in ETL meetings, and more. As the internship progressed, I was able to run a given ETL’s department on my own, with some help from the Store Director, while the ETL was on vacation. I will say the job description was helpful and accurate, but definitely glamorized to attract candidates. Giving the internship a shot and getting into retail without much of an initial job description was a gamble that ended up working out in my favor and I loved the internship!
I do not have a copy of the job description.
4 replies on “Job Descriptions”
Lindsay,
That is lucky that even though you did not know much about the job duties and qualifications before applying, you still ended up having a good experience! It seems that the information system that Handshake uses must be pretty good since it basically did the matching for you and knew from your profile that your skills would align with what Target was offering.
I have noticed too that some of the companies that post Internship opportunities on Handshake have their job descriptions written in a way that although has been made to sound really exciting and enticing, sometimes is very vague. I’m often left wondering still what the internship actually entails and therefore questioning whether I have what they are looking for in the position they posted.
Hi Lindsay,
Thanks for sharing about your experience. I have noticed that trend with some larger companies – they will write their descriptions to attract candidates more than focusing on the duties of the job. I think it is a good strategy for attracting candidates but it is critical to talk about the expectations and reality of the position during the recruitment process. I can tell that the honesty that was given in the interview really helped shape how you were approaching the position.
Sara
Hi Lindsay!
I have to agree with you, sometimes big corporate companies glamorize their job descriptions because they know they will attract more people. Its understandable why they wouldn’t want to give out big responsibilities to new employee but sometimes the job descriptions make it sound like you will play big roles in the business but when you actually start it isn’t like that. It can sometimes take half a year to fully follow what the job description. I am glad to hear you actually took a big role in managing a group! that should pretty exciting to experience:) I enjoyed reading your blog!
Patty Genaro
Lindsay,
as others have mentioned, it’s lucky that you were able to have a great experience without knowing very much about the position. It’d good that they gave more of an idea during the orientation process so you weren’t going in completely blind.