Worked at corporate HQ - Bad Corporate Management - understaffed and underpayed for many years - Anonymous employee Guitar Center Employee Review

1.0
Aug 17, 2021
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

company discount on equipment, although I didn't really use it.

Cons

The executive branch of this company, will see you as nothing more than dirt, and they'll pay you even less. I was never given a single penny raise in the over 2 Years and 4 months I worked there. My direct boss was a great guy, but the execs above him genuinely did not care if their employees were treated properly. My team was criminally understaffed, when the person above me left I was forced to take on their responsibilities in addition to my own for well over a year with no increase in compensation whatsoever. Imagine just 2 guys, as the sole IT support staff for the entire corporate center (plus on-call with stores and other centers), absolute madness. Avoid this company, especially the corporate headquarters, at all costs. You will never get promoted or paid properly for your duties. Special shouts to the Chief Technology Officer Ravi Balwada, an incredibly evil person, who cares more about "automation" than treating humans with respect.

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5.0
Jan 9, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Got to work with so many people

Cons

Long hours during holidays were rough

1.0
Apr 21, 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.

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