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

2.0
Jun 25, 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
Feb 5, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

*friendly environment *great discount deal *lots of opportunities to connect *Good opportunity to get comission *Tour Leave

Cons

*hours / shifts get cut *Sometimes understaffed, sometimes overstaffed *Competitive salaries because of selling Protection Plans, Credit Card Applications and Lessons

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.

2
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