Harsh sales culture. - Sales Associate Guitar Center Employee Review

1.0
Jun 27, 2010
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

You obviously get a great discount on gear and coworkers are, for the most part, good people. Good coworkers make this job tolerable.

Cons

Management has a meticulous fascination with metrics and statistics rather than sheer sales numbers. My store manager was extremely dogmatic towards certain employees, fostering an environment of poor morale. The overwhelming majority of coworkers were dissatisfied with pressure to reach unrealistic store-wide performance goals, and most fellow employees had desire to leave.

Explore other reviews about Guitar Center

5.0
Feb 5, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

*friendly environment *great discount deal *lots of opportunities to connect *Good opportunity to get comission *Tour Leave

Cons

*hours / shifts get cut *Sometimes understaffed, sometimes overstaffed *Competitive salaries because of selling Protection Plans, Credit Card Applications and Lessons

1.0
Apr 21, 2026
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

- Plenty of capable individual contributors doing real work. - The brand and the business itself are legitimate — the problems are organizational.

Cons

- Senior leadership is politically driven rather than outcome-driven. Strategic initiatives stall out, and leaders spend more energy assigning or shifting blame than actually diagnosing and fixing problems. - Some parts of the org operate on deference to the top. Honest assessments get softened into whatever narrative leadership wants to hear, which makes real cross-functional work difficult. - Senior leaders do not consistently advocate for their own teams. When things get political, self-preservation takes precedence over backing the people underneath, and capable managers end up exposed.

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