Cult-Like, Sometimes Fun, Underpaid - Department Manager Guitar Center Employee Review

2.0
25 Jun 2010
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Fun environment. Lots of Gear. Co-workers generally awesome. Do what you love. Rare opportunity to put knowledge about gear to good use while honing sales skills.

Cons

Very low pay to performance ratio. Non-existant management track. Cold calling. Used car sales lot environment. Cult-like slogans and reluctance to question policies. Unnecessarily competitive. 1.5% of gross and 10% of gp (gross profit) usually=peanuts. You must "fade" past $6 and hour salary, meaning the percentages apply to your salary first. Turnover is high enough that there is no incentive to change these policies. I went in thinking this would be something akin to the management training track my mom went into at Federated Department Stores after college. I was wrong.

Explore other reviews about Guitar Center

5.0
25 Jun 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Very flexible with hours working.

Cons

Difficult to stray away from Hal Leonard curriculum sometimes, but may be different now.

3.0
1 Jul 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Sweet deals and discounts Coworkers are very pleasant to work with Good as extra income Good for aspiring musicians to network with experts of the industry

Cons

Obsolete softwares Scheduling system software that is thenmost imperative tool as of it will be the backbone of a lesson lead for your team of instructors success it's also somewhat obsolete amd constantly crashing both IT and Upper management are aware. IT is very diligent and pleasant to work with but Upper management expects their lessons lead to work and deliver at 100% capacity while they continue to have an operating system that only works at 75% capacity, just beware of that and if you're willing to work under those conditions. With that put there go at your own discretion. Nobody gets Christmas/winter holiday vacation time off, also go at your own discretion on that one especially if you have kids and family looking for work-life-balance.

See reviews by: Helpful|Rating|Date|All