Good Place to Work - Department Manager Guitar Center Employee Review

4.0
Dec 31, 2014
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

The discounts are great, learning and trying all of the new gear before it comes out is always wonderful. I'm sure it's not as important, but personalizing and watching movies in the break room during lunch. The managers were pretty understanding if you had a show or something came up last minute and would try to work with you on getting coverage. Most of my customers were awesome, and treated me with respect, but there's always a few who get nasty, or demand a discount (among other things). I'm not sure if I got lucky with my store, but for a while I was the only female employee there, and all of my guys would back me up if ever a situation arose. If I felt uncomfortable, I could let them know without feeling ashamed of myself, if a customer implied I didn't know what I was talking about because of my gender, they would politely correct them in a professional manner (i.e. "I'm actually more of a Gibson guy myself, if you're looking for a Strat she probably knows more than I do about the specific models you're looking at.")

Cons

It can be difficult to move up, as that only occurs when someone leaves or transfers. The only thing I will say is that I noticed a few people were sort of fast tracked and moved up, where perhaps the better move would to bring someone from another store in. Also, there was not as much training that went into teaching people how to manage effectively. I saw a few people who let the power rush go to their heads. Pay was a bit difficult, but it was still in the process of changing and evolving while I was there.

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5.0
Jun 25, 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
Jul 1, 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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