Sweetwater reviews

No company is perfect. Sweetwater is going through a lot of major changes and yes there are growing pains. But despite that we push through it we persevere and we succeed… This company is running lean and mean and is making money when so many others are not…

The good said, this company struggles with poor management issues in general. A lot of their Sales Managers are ex-Guitar Center managers, which is hilarious because of how often Sweetwater employees and the "Sweetwater University" Instructors trash Guitar Center constantly during sales training (Sweetwater literally bought the billboard right above Guitar Center in town just to be petty). That said, most of them aren't too bad - though I don't know anything about management in the other departments as I only worked in sales. Upper management, however, was a pain across the board. Pretty much everyone I ever talked to that was above the first line of managers was incredibly out of touch (Save for a couple) and had little to no idea what it was actually like working as an employee under them. In sales training they pound it into your head that you run your business "your way" and so long as you aren't breaking any rules or being super shady, they largely leave you alone. This is not the case. Regardless of the money you make, if you're not making 80-120 phone calls a day (you know, that outdated technology that fewer and fewer people use every day, and largely just get annoyed by) then they'll make your employment there a frustrating existence and beat you down until you either change or quit (I ended up leaving because I couldn't handle the b**ching anymore, though that isn't what I told them at the time). They also have (or at least had) a bad habit of firing people and lying to their remaining employees about why they were fired. The benefits are okay at best and incredibly expensive, and HR was a complete joke (although I've heard it's gotten better as they've started removing people from executive positions they never should have had, but had gained through friendships with Chuck). They're incredibly inconsistent with how they promote and move employees, and will lie to you about putting you in a different department on a timeline (this happened to at least 3 of my friends while I was there). There's no flexibility in your schedule outside of your vacation time, which you will have to use when your sick in lieu of sick or personal time. This is one of the funnier parts to me, because they insist on hiring real musicians - but refuse to give you time to continue being a musician outside of work. All in all, if you just want to "drink the Kool-aid" and get a bunch of free gear and make some killer money, then this is an amazing job for you. If you have other aspirations outside of work in any capacity, this will not be a good place for you for the long term.