Sweetwater reviews

4.2

81% would recommend to a friend

(541 total reviews)
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Mike Clem

90% approve of CEO

73% positive business outlook

Sweetwater has an employee rating of 4.2 out of 5 stars, based on 541 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have an excellent working experience there. The Sweetwater employee rating is 24% above average for employers within the Retail & Wholesale industry (3.4 stars).

Reviews by job title

541 reviews
1.0
Nov 3, 2023
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

I worked a Sweetwater for a year and made some amazing life long friends there. The people are the best part here! Everyone is extremely passionate in what they can offer to others, and the company thrives and constantly benefits from taking advantage of them for their skills without proper pay. Their motto is ‘do the right thing’ and it only ever translates to ‘doing the right thing to make the most profit for the shareholders’ The only Pro is the people I’ve met in my year of employment. I left because I could not stand seeing my friends struggling to make ends meet as I was. There are plently of better paying jobs requiring less working hours and experience in Fort Wayne Indiana, and that says a LOT.

Cons

Horrible work life balance. Sales Engineers are expected to work at least 50-60 hours a week with unpaid mandatory meetings. I still struggle to this day figuring out how this is legal. The onsite cafe is a con for people working in the retail store or campus operations because we barely make enough to make ends meet, then they charge us more for food and extend the taxes to us. We charge our food to our badges, it comes right out of our pay check. They pay us less money because we buy food there and we pay for the taxes of it all. The culture overall is awful. They pat themselves on the back for ‘donating to local charities’ while most of the people working there do not make enough or have enough free time to actually spend money in the Fort Wayne community and make it a better place for all. How is it good for business to not invest in your people who will then in turn invest in your community? Do NOT move to Fort Wayne for this company, they are masters of bait and switch. Do NOT sign their 18 month employment contract. Phone calls are becoming obsolete and the company is not adapting fast enough to keep up with the new market, but no matter how logically and redundant employees will retort back to this insane business practice, they will not budge. You will NOT make enough money to make ends meet the first few years of being a sales engineer and that is a completely unacceptable way of people treated by a company. Do not get deceived by their salary ranges posted online as they are not correct. Those numbers are obviously old but not they have hundreds, almost a thousand sales engineers fighting for scraps while the sales guys who started with sweetwater back in 2001 hoards all the best clients. The sales guys who make it here are ruthless and horrible to each other. HR will do everything they can to cover their own tracks. If you go to them with concerns, expect to be gaslight and shoved aside. And that is, if you can even get in to meet with them as they will mostly ignore you. Everything (I mean EVERYTHING) is surveilled in the building. HR keeps records of all your emails, all your private meetings with them or your superiors. They have cameras everywhere. They do not trust their employees and treat us all like we are future lawsuits waiting to happen. They handle people with disabilities like they are damaged goods that just “can’t keep up with our high energy culture”, when in actuality their expectations are extremely unrealistic. The kinds of people who survive and move up in this company are newly graduated college students who have no concept of boundaries, living expenses, or personal goals. They want to take over your life and mold you into this perfect idea of a sweetwater shill. If you are a differently abled or a creative person (like most of the people they hire here because we are all musicians!!!) then you will STRUGGLE until they break you into submission. I wouldn’t wish working for this company on my worst enemy. If I could give less than 1 star for it, I would.

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Sweetwater Response
2y
I'm really sorry to hear your that this was your perspective at Sweetwater. There is a bit too much here to respond to in one message but I'll share a few thoughts. First, I'm not aware of HR having ever sent a message about putting money in a jar for a coffee - that would be a pretty odd email. If you have details on that one please feel free to send me a direct message (you can find my email online) and I'd love to hear more about it. Second, the company did not grow 30% in profit last year. That is not accurate. We did experience sales growth (top line) but running a company always involves more than top line - it involves handling expenses of a company that can often grow at a much different pace....and managing a company well for the long haul means managing these well also. (The fact that Sweetwater has never laid anyone off in our 44 year history.....including through really tough economic times.... is a good testament to the fact that the company leadership has been managing this balance pretty well.) It's also not true that no one got raises last year. In fact, our total company raise percentage in 2023 was higher than the national average and has been for the past several years. The reality is that we're putting more money into raises than most companies around the country. Again, I feel terrible that your experience with Sweetwater left a bad taste in your mouth. We're working hard to take care of our employees and we'll keep working hard to do even better in the future. - Jeff Ostermann, Chief People & Culture Officer
3.0
Oct 30, 2023
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

- You can make a great living if you push yourself to the absolute limit and sacrifice a normal work/life balance. - Largely left alone by upper management. - Discounts on gear

Cons

- This is a call center despite what management will tell you. You're expected to handle incoming customer service related calls but also expected to make a high volume of outbound sales calls, emails, texts. And you WILL be judged by these metrics. - Scheduling in Sales is an absolute nightmare. Good luck having a normal work/life balance. - Management in Sales is contradictory and often disconnected from Sales Engineers. - Failing CRM, technical issues are frequent and disruptive. - Arbitrary rules for awarding commission and arbitrary/fluxuating expectations depending on who your direct Sales Manager is. - Sales is vehemently against work-from-home even as a temporary, short term option. - Getting access to the best quality leads is based on timing and office politics, not on your expertise. - Under-the-table big customer hand-offs happen constantly. The best way to make money here long-term is to have big customers literally handed to you by other sales guys who are leaving. It's NOT about how good you are at prospecting clients.

3.0
Oct 29, 2023
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Good pay if willing to work hard

Cons

Not a lot of understanding from management

Viewing 184 - 186 of 541 Reviews

Glassdoor has 571 Sweetwater reviews submitted anonymously by Sweetwater employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if Sweetwater is right for you.