Sweetwater reviews

4.0

77% would recommend to a friend

(540 total reviews)
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Mike Clem

88% approve of CEO

72% positive business outlook

Sweetwater has an employee rating of 4.0 out of 5 stars, based on 540 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The Sweetwater employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Retail & Wholesale industry (3.4 stars).

Reviews by job title

540 reviews
5.0
Nov 3, 2018

Quality Work Place

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Great work culture. Day to day tasks are clearly communicated and creatively challenging, yet rewarding.

Cons

None that I can think of.

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Sweetwater Response
7y
Thanks for the positive review. We're glad that, like the overwhelming majority of Sweetwater employees, you enjoy working here! Jeff McDonald, Senior VP of Human Resources
3.0
Oct 30, 2018

Don't get sucked in to the hype

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Lots of extra perks and benefits. Leading company in their industry.

Cons

The HR department and various management really push everyone drinking the Kool Aid and believing this is the greatest place to work on the planet. After 2 years at this company though, I've learned that is not the case. Pay there is barely competitive in many departments. You can make lots of money in sales but it can take years to do so and most guys will tell you it's very stressful. At this point the company is growing so fast, the quality of employees bring hired is inconsistent at best. I have dealt with some of the most negative and toxic people at this company. To be fair, there are some very extraordinary and excellent people there as well, but the "culture" that is preached there has become a fake shell of what it once was in my opinion. The employees closer to the bottom of the ladder can get treated poorly as well. Mandatory overtime can spike at a moment's notice, and integrity can sometimes play second fiddle to "hitting the numbers".

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Sweetwater Response
7y
I guess as part of that "HR department" I'm one of those people this reviewer references who thinks "this is the greatest place to work on the planet." So guilty as charged: I sincerely believe this is a great place to work that offers not just a lot of unique amenities, but also an environment where employees can grow, both personally and professionally. That's why we offer Leadership Lunches and lots of other learning opportunities beyond Sweetwater University (13 weeks of training that is amazing in and of itself) for employees to spread their wings and develop their skills. So far this year over 60 employees have been promoted internally! We've recently significantly hiked wages in several areas to insure we're competitive in the marketplace. And we are quite selective in our hiring, always striving to insure people will fit into a our positive, upbeat culture. Are we growing really quickly? To be sure, but that is being driven by our highly satisfied customers, not some random target we've set for ourselves. Are we interested in performing well and taking outstanding care of our customers? Absolutely. But we would argue that the first focus is always on doing the right thing and putting the customer's needs ahead of all else, not just "hitting the numbers." We emphatically believe good numbers are a secondary end result of providing great service. Along that line, it's important to know that, unlike most other sales oriented organizations, the Sales Engineers here set their own goals. We make no bones about the fact that we work hard and strive for excellence at all levels of the company. What I can also definitively say as the head of HR is that we don't want any employee at any level to feel they have been "treated poorly." We take that very seriously and strive very diligently to take any complaint we get (very rare) about employee dissatisfaction with the utmost seriousness. Is Sweetwater or every single one of its employees perfect? We would never claim that. But the fact that the vast majority of our employees truly enjoy their work here isn't "hype." Jeff McDonald, Senior VP of Human Resources
3.0
Oct 14, 2018

Pretty good job for younger employees

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

There was a Good amount of leeway

Cons

Always just felt unprofessional

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Sweetwater Response
7y
It's a little hard to figure out what's meant by children's clicks (assuming "cliques") here and what the context for "cool teacher" is. We would encourage this employee to speak to either his/her supervisor or to us in HR if there is a perception of unprofessional behavior we can help address or understand. We pride ourselves in being professional here and "always doing in the right thing" which is our mission statement. Jeff McDonald, Senior VP of Human Resources
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Glassdoor has 569 Sweetwater reviews submitted anonymously by Sweetwater employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if Sweetwater is right for you.