Pros
Good employee perks decent Health Insurance on site cafeteria and coffee bar nice building and facilities stable company outlook better than most competitors in music retail some good managers and teams can be found
Cons
Constant requests for employees to do more and volunteer for overtime shifts when most jobs out there are offering time off - Thanksgiving/Black Friday wknd and build up to holiday. Working long hours during times of year when others are spending time off with family can be challenging. Your workload will increase over time to a point where you either request a different title to shed some new duties or you try to juggle it all while avoiding burnout. There is a culture of pressure to say yes to every additional work request or be seen as someone who is not a go getter team player. You get lots of company emails telling you how great the company is and how lucky you are to work there. For some this can be nauseating, but it becomes normalized after some time there. They have asked employees to post positive reviews for company on job sites, letting them know they are striving for perfect ratings. There is a large fluctuation in employee experience. There are some great managers who are positive and realistic with expectations. There are others who want to impress executives and constantly ask for more output from team. There is a first response to email thread wins culture. Whoever responds the fastest to an email thread influences the solution implemented, no matter how short term it is or how little research done on the matter. Lots of tickets and issues overloading departments due to this "Sweetwater time" answer to problems. Company has completely changed from being founder owned and we'll never go public promise, to being sold to financial company and pursuing a Best Buy type site with eyes on going public. Many departments still have mandatory in office policy with no remote positions or hybrid schedule allowed. Execs want everyone in office and are against the remote trend. Most execs are very conservative despite being in the music industry. Keep this in mind when looking for a place to climb the ladder. My first orientation class was led by someone worried about national debt, this country losing its values and Washington taxing and spending our dollars. Doesn't take much to decode these things in meetings. Founder has donated millions to Christian colleges that forbid lgbtq relationships. As company grows hopefully employees will pressure those at top to not lean so conservative or Christian with philanthropy. This is changing, but it was not unusual to be at a meeting with ten to twelve white men in the room. They are hiring more women than in the past. Industry itself may contribute to this problem.