No longer viable. - Department Manager Guitar Center Employee Review

1.0
26 June 2019
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Discounted gear, some good people to work with.

Cons

Poor compensation. After a restructure of their commissions, myself and many other long time employees saw their pay take a 25% or more dive. The company has shifted focus from experienced salespeople making a decent living, to clerks who can sell cheap stuff at just above minimum wage. Career advancement opportunities are scarce, and often a lateral shift at best in terms of pay.

Explore other reviews about Guitar Center

5.0
16 July 2025
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Management takes good care of you

Cons

No complaints that I can think of

1.0
21 Apr 2026
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

- Plenty of capable individual contributors doing real work. - The brand and the business itself are legitimate — the problems are organizational.

Cons

- Senior leadership is politically driven rather than outcome-driven. Strategic initiatives stall out, and leaders spend more energy assigning or shifting blame than actually diagnosing and fixing problems. - Some parts of the org operate on deference to the top. Honest assessments get softened into whatever narrative leadership wants to hear, which makes real cross-functional work difficult. - Senior leaders do not consistently advocate for their own teams. When things get political, self-preservation takes precedence over backing the people underneath, and capable managers end up exposed.

2
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