warehouse associate

sander

packer

material handler

machine operator

Fender Musical Instruments Corporation

I worked for Fender's engineering department for 1.5 years. Fender produces some of the best guitars out there - they have an incredible product. However, they do this not because they manufacture well (without errors), but because their QA departments won't pass any guitars that don't meet truly fantastic specifications. To correct this problem required a fair investment in equipment and facilities, and the management when I was there didn't believe in spending a lot of money. Bottom line: if you want to work there, be prepared for frustration - the culture was laid back when I was there, but success in engineering required accounting for production management that was jaded from engineering's latest and greatest ideas, an entrenched way of doing things among the rank and file line workers, and a factory that was ran so near its limit that there was a large number of product errors that could be avoided in a larger or better designed facility. 

Special note: Fender seems to be a "mature" company. Short of expansion, there's not a lot of room for advancement, but people are pretty secure in their positions. 

A typical day at work: A "typical" manufacturing engineering job - project based, manager keeps an eye on you. Projects are typically introducing a new product or pursuing a process improvement. There is a surprising number of "forensics" jobs where you need to find out what happened with a particular batch.

Management: Typically laid back as long as you do your job. When I had left, Fender was encountering a kind of "culture shift" due to a new manager. Word from colleagues is that several other engineers left since then.

Your coworkers: Most laid back group of people I've ever dealt with, and they love their work. Would definitely work there again.

The hardest part of the job: Producing actual, sustainable change and making a boss who was new to Fender culture happy.

The most enjoyable part of the job: Projects introducing new products. Marketing says to R&D "We need a guitar that lights up neon when you strum it, and weighs three ounces", R&D goes "what?!" then mutters to itself in a corner until their wizards get together and make exactly what marketing ordered. Engineering gets the prototype and says, "What?! You spent 30 hours making one guitar and you want us to make one in 2..." Then engineering looks at what they did, gets to play around with new ideas and processes and finally makes something that will work. The job is fun when you're trying new things.

Used to be a great place to work.  The beginning of the end of that era came when private equity investors took over.  The management team is a revolving door and there is constant directional changes.  Each new guy comes in saying the last one was an idiot and didn’t know what he was doing.  In the couple of years since I left, none of that has changed.  The plant leadership has been entirely replaced and in many cases, the replacements have been replaced.  Blame on the daily problems will always fall on the low guys on the totem pole and they are used as the scapegoats for management incompetencies.  For production work, decent pay and depending on what department you land in, the hours can be stable.  The tune-testers have the “fun” job but their hours can be some of the worst.  I would look elsewhere unless you really need a job at the moment.  For managers, the work/life balance will tip in their favor considerably.

Worked for 2.5 years. Honestly I was miserable. Management is poorly run there and they don't care about the floor workers you're just a number to them. The office people seem happy though. So if you can land a office job you might like it. It's fun being around guitars all day I am a guitarist but it's not enjoyable. Long hours 6 days a week on your feet all day, my hands would go numb when I was sleeping from using them all day doing the same movement 10 to 12 hours a day. You couldn't make plans because you never knew what time you would be off and most times Friday at the end of day they would tell you to come to work Saturday. It was frustrating. I did meet some cool people and we're friends now. And there was times when it was fun but it was a very short time because we'd have to return to work to make there production number. Most of all of everything was management was just not managing. AND no A/C on the production floor. 

Fender's old school "DNA" was retired for a younger, less product passionate management team.  It feels like it's more about the money and less about the employees, history and loyalty that built over the years.  Since my departure, things have stabilized with a focus on education, apps, and social media...less lay-offs.  With a flat to slightly upward trending market, Fender holds it own because of the brand name.  The people are friendly, however the company is not as employee focused as it use to be.

Overall, Fender is a great place to work if you are not a musician. New executive management comes from Nike, Disney, and other iconic lifestyle brands that are not music related.  They appeared to be struggling with the musician mindset before I left the company.

Fender taught me much of what I know about manufacturing, customer service, marketing, and operations.  For that I am eternally grateful.  Great people, great brand, can be a fun place to work.

A typical day required a detailed eye for imperfections on any of the instruments I repaired, tuned, and inspected. I developed rapidly into a quick service repairman because of the demands of the lead supervisor who rejected to work on any guitar that wasn't a special order for an international recording artist endorsed by the company. the management neglected the importance of the equality in the workplace which made it harder on the actual workers to be productive. my co workers were like family and understood and valued each other's virtues, unfortunately that wasn't the case with the supervisors. the hardest part of the job was improvising with the lack of tools but it really taught me to work with what I had in front of me because I was being timed on my production and quality.
the most enjoyable part of the job was that I got to do what I loved which was work on guitars and make them feel high quality and ready to play for the buyer.

The manufacturing plant needs a union. Upper management and HR do not care for the quality of life for their employers. When I first started I noticed a lot of families worked in the factory together and a lot of couples met at work. This isn’t because of the “family environment” but rather the employees have no time outside of work to develop relationships. Employees are so overworked they purposely clock out and go back to work because they would rather get out on time for once. Most in leadership cannot in thoroughly communicate goals and back track on promises.  Leadership is not emotionally competent and regularly push employees to their  emotional limits by gaslighting and saying things like “I don’t care, just get your number. Remember you are replaceable.”  If you decide to work here always have conversations in email. 

As the summary says the only pros of working at Fender is the name recognition and the fact that you work on guitars. Other than that it is like any other production job were you receive no support and are constantly stuck in a position with very little room to move around. You have a better chance of being able to get promoted if you know someone or hang out with management either during or outside of work hours. 
The turnover rate is extremely high due to low satisfaction with the job and constant layoffs and if you do decide to stick around around and make a career out of it, good luck getting a substantial raise. They will actually find a reason to lower your pay if they can and still ask you to do overtime. There have been people who have been working at the factory for over 30 years and barely make more than a new hire in 2023.

After a top level management change in 2010, the company began a meteoric decline. More hours. No company matching to the 401k. Benefits were cut. Several new VP's who were hired from the CEO's former company don't contribute to productivity, but rather impede same. The company recently moved to a shiny new building, yet somehow we wound-up with 30% less space per person. Most of our tech (R&D, IT, etc) interns left when their wages were cut to the legal minimum, The cronyism at the upper levels is palpable: we got 1% raises and they got 10's of thousands of shares of stock options (long time employees got an email telling us we were welcome to buy as much stock as we wanted - as long as we were willing to pay full price).

It's hard to suck all the fun out of a guitar company, but Fender has managed to do so. Don't walk, RUN screaming from this place!

Loved working around guitars, it was a fun environment to be in. I experienced a lot of management changes during my time at fender. The direction of the company felt unclear/unsteady while I was there. Also there was a disconnect between different levels of management and floor personnel -- this would probably be fixed by better communication. Also limited growth opportunities working here and slow promotions. You can still pick up more skills and responsibilities if you seek them out, just don't expect a quick title change or increase in pay from the extra work. Overall a positive experience being here, the company has it's flaws but what company doesn't. Also friendly staff and occasional company events (lunches/concerts/giveaways) make a more enjoyable work experience.

My typical day at work was to clock in at 5:00.am do exercise with all my co-workers, and right away i need it too start doing cycle count because before 7:00 a.m needed  to present my report to the QA. I learn a lot, my supervisor show me how to work with excel and little by little i start learning by my self. My management was to have my head clear to do my job correctly, my co-workers were really nice to me because i always come in with a smile and do everything for them because i was there material handler they looked at as there leader. My hardest part of my job was when my supervisor would send me too his meeting and didn't have no clue what was going on. My most enjoyable part of my job was that i was always walking,  fixing problems that i only know how to fix and going out to the other warehouse to take material to shipped out.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Warehouse associate 9 salaries reported	$17.89 per hour
Sander 2 salaries reported	$17.75 per hour
Packer 12 salaries reported	$18.17 per hour
Material handler 3 salaries reported	$19.50 per hour
Machine operator 2 salaries reported	$18.00 per hour

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