Like another VML has mentioned, Target doesn't know what to do with their visual merchandisers. They expect you to come in at all different shifts including weekends versus the early morning/opening weekday shifts that are better suited for this kind of work (and for me, an industry standard if you're not a keyholder/manager on duty).
Executive team leaders (which you can automatically become after getting a bachelors degree, even if you have no retail experience or experience in the department you're applied for) sit around and drink Starbucks all day and have weekly hours-long "meetings" where they sit behind closed doors and eat catered lunches while the team leaders are running around the store trying to do everything because payroll is always too low to staff enough team members for the sales floor. ETLs are expected to work 10 hour days 5 days a week because they are salaried (and believe me, there's a HUGE difference between their salary and a team leader's hourly salary) but they'll complain and moan and groan about it and then show up to work the next day and say "I have an event/appointment to go to" and will leave after a few hours.
For some of the team leaders that have been around for years, VMLs are seen as their assistants instead of consultants. Basically we're there to be the catch all and finish projects they couldn't finish or recover their departments for them. It started out great and it seemed everyone was on the same page but now almost a year later, my displays are taken apart for ugly bulk product to be set on the floor and then I'm left to put away whatever doesn't sell so I can rebuild my display. Then when you don't have time to do your other projects because you're playing catch up 60% of the time, they have conversations with you about your productivity.
About growth, I spoke to my HR about developing and I was told that there was currently no direction on VMLs moving into senior team leader/ETL positions. That's exactly what anyone wants to hear, that they're stuck working in a dead end.
