You're never safe. - Anonymous employee Guitar Center Employee Review

2.0
13 Oct 2017
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

-Fun place to work -Meeting interesting people -Making genuine connections with customers -Awesome coworkers -With genuine, real effort, you can make good money -Great employee discount -Get to play some awesome gear, new and vintage

Cons

-Large percentage gaps between commission tiers which results in a BIG pay gap from the top employees and the "bottom" employees. If you're in the drum or accessories department, good luck. The commission scale is not in your favor - at all. (foot traffic is just not terribly high at this location) Albeit, with some effort you can still squeeze SOMETHING out of it -Heavy and often unwarranted pressure from sales managers -You cannot trust anything management tells you -No real guidance, and when the managers do give guidance, it was usually entirely counterproductive Your job is never safe at this location. I even witnessed seasoned, long-time great employees get dropped without warning. If management wants you gone, they will find a way to get you out at the flip of a switch, even if it means blatantly lying. Thanks to the arbitration agreement you must sign, this makes wrongful termination entirely possible without much recourse to the company. You can be a consistent top employee, meeting and exceeding expectations, never having a single issue regarding behavior or attendance, being looked up to and respected by your coworkers, and even being groomed to be a sales lead/manager - and they will still quickly & wrongfully turn their backs on you in a heartbeat. Before I worked for this company, I was very aware of this possibility due to negative reviews literally everywhere about working for Guitar Center. Guess what, they're true.

Explore other reviews about Guitar Center

5.0
25 June 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 July 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.

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