store manager

sales associate

warehouse associate

maintenance technician

equipment operator

Guitar Center

I once loved this place, but honestly this company has been running itself into the ground for the last few years for a variety of reasons:

- Commission rate/percentage is simply too low. Not a livable wage. In order to increase your commission bracket you have to sell more per hour to hit a certain number of sales per hour, which is all good and fun but have a slow work day where not too many customers came into the store and your percentage immediately shrinks and you make less commission, which is generally most of the year except holiday season. 
- When you are trying to sell you often have to compete with other associates, that makes it a hostile sort of shark environment as well as pretty uncomfortable for the customer, more than once have I seen disputes among staff members over who gets a commission 
-The percentages are so tiny for the amount you are expected to sell in order to make a livable wage.  For example, I can sell 30k worth a month but I'd only see about $500 to $600 extra commission on my paychecks and thats actually being generous. Combined with the fact that most of the time its difficult to sell that high unless we're in holiday season and you get measly paychecks that anyone in a sales position would consider a joke  
- Turnover is super duper high. We have roughly a staff of 30, and from the day I started the only person thats remained is now the store manager. Every employee I know has been replaced. 
- associates receive barely any training for the job, and product knowledge is not only severely lacking among employees but also dispensed in the form of ineffective "modules" that associates are forced to take in order to kill time during light customer hours. 
- I can only speak for my own Guitar Center but we've been short staffed for the last 5 years. Often time a manger has to close a department---managers don't make commission, so thats money is going to GC's pockets and not an employee because of the shortened hours. 
- Having a manger be responsible for closing a department when they simultaneously have to close the store produces a unnecessary strain during open/working hours, leading to many customer service issues such as long wait times, inconsistent service, among other things 
-Becoming a manager at GC often times will place you in direct competition with associates for commission and managers DON'T EVEN MAKE COMMISSION. They are told to make the company money at all costs even when taking it out of the associates pocket. Evil. 
- The sales team at my store is 100% men, there is not one woman that works with us. I've worked at GC for close to 7 years now and during that period we had 3 women that were hired and stayed on staff for more than 6 months. Basically GC is a giant sausage fest that is more prone to be a toxic environment because of its huge lack of diversity. 
- Management (and more specifically corporate) often make decisions arbitrarily for stores --- meaning that one person (likely the CEO, Ron Japinga) will make sweeping decisions that affect nearly 300+ stores in varying conditions without taking it more on a case by case basis. 
- Management (corporate) often times flips decisions on a dime and have been regularly cutting back on incentivizing and beneficial programs to employees in the last few years like our pro coverage spiff was removed, yearly office parties were removed and bonus's for associates as well
- no money is spent on store upkeep. The bathrooms are often filthy and clean up often falls on one associate every night who doesn't get paid enough to clean the floors and the toilets tbh. 
- speaking of upkeep, we have a carpet in the store that is close to 20 years old and has not been replaced at all. the carpet is absolutely filthy and the whole store is basically falling apart---gc spends no extra expense on clean up crews or janitors or any kind of upkeep. it all falls on the associates shoulders and honestly they barely get paid to care about customers let alone the condition of our stores 


Positives: 
- great environment for a working musician 
- great discount for working musician 
- somewhat conducive environment for gaining product/gear knowledge-- just don't expect to be trained on what anything is, you have to take initiative to learn about a product 

IN CONCLUSION: 

Guitar Center can be an awesome place to work. When I started, I was brimming with excitement--- the discount is amazing, and if you are a budding musician it is a haven for building your own rig/studio. But once you progress past that I just doubt anybody over the age of 30 would want to have either a management job or an associates job there for longer than a year. I've been there for close to 7 years because I am stuck. I can tell you i've well outgrown this gig. The management position is ridiculous as it places you in direct competition with your peers and colleagues that also have to sell in order to make a living. Oh and maybe becoming a manager gives you a livable wage? Well no. Its usually a buck or two above minimum wage unless you were a stellar salesman that sharked the most deals on the floor. Then they give you an average number of your sales. In some cases an associate manager will get more hourly than your CSM (who is in a higher position). Isn't that nuts? Just because they sold more during their tenure as sales associate, they get more hourly when they become a manager. Seems fair right? But what about the CSM thats been putting in their time for years, how come they get paid more than the literal second in command at the store? Thats because the CSM barely got paid anything to begin with. When the CSM asked for a raise because of this they just laughed in his face. 

There are tons of decisions like this that just baffle. GC would rather have legit, knowledgable employees leave good positions just because they wouldn't give them a couple bucks raise. Thats why our turnover is SO SO high. 

The hilarious part is, half the problems here can be fixed if GC accepted just a little bit less money and paid their associates a little more commission. Once associates on average making 15-20 an hour in commission then they might start caring. But unfortunately, being paid min. wage and then expecting associates to have exceptional product knowledge, perfect upkeep and maintenance of the store and low turnover is really just wishful thinking. Increase our wages and then Guitar Center can actually futureproof itself. Its CEO might just have to accept a little lower paycheck but at least you'll see changes.

You have to really love working in retail, and competing with a lifer there who gets about 95% of the business in one department alone. I totally believed in the "look after one another" philosophy when I came aboard…learned through trial and error not to step on any of the other associate's leads or longterm business prospects. However, I quickly the hard way that being nice turns you into a chump, and chumps get walked on really quick. A sale is a sale, and regardless if it's theirs or not, yours could very well be theirs for the taking. Afterwards the commission would be carved up and equally distributed between the ones that swept it away from you. I was just getting used to the the "fading" scale, then the new pay structure was put into effect. I got a raise, but this was countered with a decrease in hours each week.  The store hired yet more employees (some days we were overstaffed, and volunteered to clock out for the day--if not asked to). Less hours keeps your pay scale down in respects to commission. Does not matter whatsoever if you have a banging day on the floor and sell $1000 or more. I was on a really low "tier." Something like 0.05%  commission. Or lower. If you were there longer, sold more, etc--your tier would be higher, like 2.5% for example. 
The in-store computer system utilizes what is called "Green Screen," and if you're familiar with antiquated, 1990-esque functionality (having to press a chain of commands like F9 to do this, F3 to do that…etc) then you will do fine on the register. The online system was FAR BETTER than the one they use in store.  You will have to recall what seems to be a gazillion passwords.  For the duration of the time I was there, department heads changed at least twice from within the company, positions were done away with, created, and so forth. It is NOT ENOUGH to simply "love music" and being able to create it. You will need to learn to be cutthroat & relentless in some aspects, especially when it pertains to the retail scope of things.  I guess since I wasn't an a**hole I wasn't ideal for the keeping around there. There is a high turnover with companies like this, mostly bc of young, out of HS kids who don't know what they want quite yet who get easily discouraged by the successful sales associates. The ones who have been there the longest that are the most successful. You can spot them a mile away, because they look the most haggard out of the bunch. All in all--I have no grudges; it was an experience to say the least. The store manager is AMAZING. I can't say enough good things about him. Working for him was actually fun. Unfortunately I can't say the same for the folks he had under him. Like I said, positions changed several times in a six month time frame. You could get a "coaching" from one assistant manager on one day, only to get another (when they are supposed to be weekly)  by another dept. head on the next.  Department procedures changed week to week. So committing it to memory served no real purpose if they change policy the week after. There is great emphasis on getting customers to sign up for the GC Credit Card, and adding Pro Coverage onto items over $100 that qualify. It's not hard to get folks to sign up, but good luck trying to get an approval when 4 out of 5 applicants are declined. Shortly into my time there, I enrolled in school when I saw that the hours weren't getting any better, and my paycheck was mediocre. There's only so much of that you can take. I want something bigger and better, and I'm on that path to getting it! This is an ideal job for someone who wants a stepping stone. Unless you are training for a managerial position, the sales associate's life is extremely competitive and your pay is ultimately up to you and how much you sell.

A typical day at my current job consists of hardly any "work" at all, because he/she whom works within a field surrounded by aspects which the individual enjoys practicing and/or learning further into sums into a job one would enjoy working with a passion.

A typical day would consist of describing integrated aspects of hi-tech gear and equipment to the consumer or professional whom is interested in making investments to further expand or simply start their studio operation. I found myself working with much joy informing customers about the equipment they would inquire about, because it is one of my greatest joys to inform and spread knowledge. 

From taking inbound calls inquiring about how to troubleshoot or fix certain issues with specific pieces of equipment or within recording/editing software to simply registering a sale for a customer whom approaches with a list of necessary items to complete their purchase, the days go by rather quickly at guitar center so long as the day is kept busy and productive. 

What I learned at this workplace is that even professionals within a field may still have questions, that one whom is so much as a novice in the field may be capable of providing the answers for. 

The management at Guitar Center is fairly well with upholding the balance between right, wrong, and fairness. I feel as though a few aspects in regards to how downsizing is processed could be fixed within a few areas, however, the company is well with providing jobs to those eager and knowledgeable within the field of music music production.

The coworkers at my current job are very competitive, which provides a great source for challenge and drive to strive for success within the workplace. At times, competitive may come with a few corners cut to outmatch the competing salesman, however, so long as the tactic is fair and acceptable, it is encouraged that newer salesman on the floor practice similar strategy to progress in their workflow and productivity in general.

The hardest part of this job at times would be to provide the necessary items to a customer whom is not entirely aware of what they need specifically, however it does remain in the salesman's best interests to seek and find out what it would take for the customer to return to their music operation with the correct equipment to better their production process and return again for what they may need in the (near) future.

The most enjoyable part of my job at Guitar Center has been assuring that all customers whom approach me leave with precisely what they were in the market for, and with a smile on their face displaying gratitude and promise to return again for their next quest for necessary tools. Another of my most enjoyable parts of this job is to inform customers on the items or pieces of audio gear they had not yet heard of or were not entirely aware/sure about, I find myself loving the fact that I'm able to teach people further into their desired profession/hobby about the tools that could better and expedite the completion of their tasks.

Your job title is never your job title. In any other company you can reliably assume that your day to day is going to be fairly the same and your schedule consistent with the function of the job title you have.

If you are Ops, prepare to be a salesman with no commission to boot. Your stated job title is to maintain the warehouse and perform all the shipping and receiving tasks, then all the merching tasks (changing out displays and changing price tags). You will be expected to count store tills and registers daily, assist with sales and call customers to work out finer details and interact with them as if it's your job.

Management will be oblivious to your ACTUAL duties, ask you to do sales tasks, then later when your ACTUAL work is not done, ask you coldly and monotone 'Why wasn't this DONE?" And your only response will be a cold silent stare back, because you know EXACTLY what happened, but it couldn't POSSIBLY be the managers fault, right?

Corporate is delusional, and out of touch. Enough said there.

The computer systems and security systems are convoluted and out of date by YEARS. Most of the computers running on Windows XP (which has not been supported in 10+ years at the time of this review). They use no less than 3 different systems at any given time, and each is an exercise in frustration. Nothing is uniform. Simple things like being able to copy/paste are inconsistent across each program.

Security Cameras often don't work and have huge blind spots or are blurry so you can kiss catching criminals goodbye and expect constant talk about "The 10/10 Rule" (corporate speak for "We don't want to pay for proper security to avoid profit loss in the long run so just engage every customer and try REALLY HARD to deter theft! OR ELSE!").

GC has moved towards a service based business model in recent years to compensate for the slacking music sales/online sales boom. They offer Repairs/Rentals/Lessons, and you better know all of them even if it's not your position, OR ELSE. Combined with the already understaffed, smug management model outlined above, each of these departments requires dedication to learn effectively, and god help you if you're sales and miss that 5000 mark that just walked out because you're neck deep getting a Rental contract up and the gear together and out for the customer. God help you if you're Ops and your warehouse is destroyed from neglect because you're out doing these tasks that aren't your job, because guess what happens? ("why wasn't your work done?!")

You cannot win. More over, hard work is not rewarded, and blatant breaches of policy are never written up. Probably because they know the job isn't worth the time and can't afford to lose the few people that actually still care, for some reason.

New hires beware. You will be over worked. You will not be paid for the amount you do, and you will not be appreciated in the slightest, and you will be consistently hounded and patronized and dumbfounded at the willful ignorance of your "superiors".

Take it from someone who worked there for years. STEER. CLEAR. Let this company die so the world can ultimately be better as a result.

i was trying to get my foot in the door at guitar center for almost a decade and i finally did and i loved the job and yes i feel i was not the fastest and i might have needed more help than others but i was driven and focused to make a real career in the guitar center shirt and i was proud every day to work as a guitar center employee and i was very grateful for the job and i can say that i feel i appreciated that job more than anyone else in that entrie building and its almost like the egos of the management and the other associates were competitive in nature and i see now that i showed too much of my love for the job and my big heart for the fact i finally was where i wanted to be led to it being a bigger target to get stepped on and i mean truly blatantly treated unfairly and then i was fired on my day off for something that was exaggerated and never even brought to my attention and never got any decent explanation... i mean i got fired on MY DAY OFF!!?? i remember the first day of work the opps manager had said he had been working for the company for 10 years and felt he had never been done wrong by the company.. well i  aimed for a career and definitely planned on 10 if not 20 if not 30 years to be with the company and my bosses all knew how badly i wanted to work my way up and truly be a part of the team and they fired me anyways after 5 months... i can absolutely say i have never felt more backstabbed, hurt, and double crossed by anything / anyone / or any company in my life... i did not deserve to be fired and i tried my best to work out any kind of deal / offered to do anything it took to not lose my job and  not only did they ignore me they all blocked me and threatened to place a restraining order  on me from the store ... the same store i bought my first guitar from almost 15 years ago and store i had many fond memories as a lifelong customer then a 5 month long proud employee and my boss who only has lived California for less than 2 years fired me anyways just because he wanted to flex his superiority and make an example out of me and the truth is that he and i are both the same age and we had one  difference... we both applied at age 18 and he got the job in Chicago and i didn't here and i applied every year and finally got an interview like 5 years later and still didn't get the job and he was working his way up while i worked jobs i hated and that were rough and horrible and made me hate life and i knew i was supposed to be doing what he was and he doesnt know what its like to work at a place where its truly just miserable and his own words were that guitar center was a toy store and he fired me anyways and he is the biggest 2 faced individual i have ever met hands down and i thought he was my friend and he fired me on my day off... my day off.......wouldn't do it face to face and made me call to deliver the news.... the store manager is a true coward 

GC could be an amazing gig but unfortunately it is not, it is quite the opposite. 

As an instructor, your main manager is a "Lead instructor" 
( who is in essence an admissions manager ) unfortunately clueless, with preferential practices and little to zero idea on how put together a fair, clean and simple schedule. Not only for the instructors but for students and store. 

When I first started I was booked for 30 minutes lesson and then had an unpaid break of a couple of hours and then another 30 minute lesson. So I was at the store for 3 hours minimum making maybe $30?. Key to remember GC takes a cut of more then 50% of the tuition paid by the students. 

As I recognized they were starting with the lesson programs, so I was patient. However the situation never improved. Prime time days were overbooked with instructors. Only few hand picked instructors were getting pitched from lead instructor to parents and potential students. Unfortunately I was not one of those instructors. Lead instructor rather book a totally inexperienced and mostly musical illiterate instructor as there was an unspoken passive aggressive discriminatory behavior in the store I worked. 

I would eventually open my entire day to GC in order to be available and get bookings, Lead manager would bring another extra instructor and give all students to them, causing my schedule to be empty on a prime day as Saturday. I brought this situation to store's manage attention and things got a bit better for a bit, but then again I got sabotaged and schedule was poorly executed. The employee turnaround is high as no one with can't stick to these conditions. 

GC also had a high amount of training modules that employees are obliged to complete that barely make an impact on your paycheck regardless of the "on the clock" time invested on them. 

Discount is positively amazing but as instructor there is no way you can purchase anything as you are making pennies teaching at GC. I spoke many times with managers and lead instructors but there was no real change. Honestly I stayed for a year with the hope of things improving and for the discount. No regrets but moving on. This review is real.

GC also pushes 4 recitals a year. A full day of work at a non-direct disclosure on how much one gets paid not adding any significant difference to your paycheck. Students are usually good but clueless on why, what and how things work suffering at the end by receiving poor tuition at times. 

There are many independent or non-for profit music schools that pay and schedule significantly better that are run by musicians and arts administrators who aren't committed to a 3 legged corporation agenda but instead to a fair, intelligent educational goals and agenda while providing instructors a real platform to make a decent living. 

Do not waste your skills, time and energy as I did.

The biggest gripe of any Guitar Center employee would certainly be compensation. While commission based salaries can be intriguing, what they didn't tell me was how little the commission percentage would be. After working there for about 5 months I found out that they had changed the commission structure and that I was actually working amongst employees who were seeing a larger commission percentage than I was simply because my hire date was later than January of 2011.

A typical day consists of sorting through a clientele program and touching base with customers to maintain relationships with a diverse community of customers. It's great to see how many customers loved being contacted by me after a purchase. After I touch base with customers, I sell to customers who are in the store while displaying a feature/benefit type of sales pitch regarding products of interest. I often give advice to young musicians who are new to music and are overwhelmed by the level of players who are around them and help them find their musical identity.

While I do not see this as the job for me, I learned vital skills toward my career advancement. I learned how to effectively negotiate a sale while receiving many compliments from customers and other business professionals who I was in contact with, I learned how to guide a team of sales associates to effectively sell and make our store one of the top stores in the entire chain. Although bad customer situations seldom happened, I did learn how to dissolve a bad situation. I learned warehouse and inventory management in a store that worked with upwards of $8m in inventory. The biggest thing I learned is the ins and outs of the music industry and coming up with my own ideas to better the industry for the future. Being able to network with sales reps of other companies, such as our supplying manufacturers, was a great experience for a recent college graduate.

The hardest part of my job is dealing with the management. The hierarchy is arranged in a way that seniority rules and education takes a back seat. I did learn that experience is vital in the work place since I did have a few managers who were great at what they did.

The best part of my job is getting a young child into music and finding that it was the best thing they've ever done. I love teaching and directing them to the right gear and giving tips towards playing. It certainly pays off when referrals were given and I had the opportunity to help more young (and adult) musicians find what would become their passion.

A typical day at GC included: a busy to moderately busy task list (usually easily attainable goals. Nothing over bearing ever passed my way without help) and an equal section with some days being busier than others. Stocking items,greeting customers,doing product demos,using my knowledge as well as others (If I didn't know) opinions,and making sure all my customers were in the loop including sending e-mail to many of them.

I learned: Not only how to be a better salesperson but also how to be a better person by working here. Dealing with people all day kind of became something I wasn't used to for a long time and this helped me break that cycle; I broke a lot of unhealthy cycles working in this wonderful place with so many great core pieces to not only the environment,but how "home" I felt there.

Management: Wow. I wouldn't be able to do what my manager did on a daily basis,including the jobs of the AMs that are on duty (Some have been actual managers and stepped down. Some have been there over a decade). I'm in their debt for all of the things I learned from my predecessors,and the "dumb questions" I had to ask over a point in time of working there. All of the things I made so technical that they answered in a word or a key stroke; all the things I thought were easy that were WAY beyond technical.They were all also my friends and fellow musicians. Down to Earth. I thank them.

Co-Workers/Broskies: All of them,incredibly talented and creative minds. Minds so vast you'd think to yourself "Why aren't they famous or inventors of some device?". Funny guys and gals; Caring and so goal orientated. I still think of them all as family.

Hardest part: My level of time to myself as well as my ability to be "away" from music and related topics was a bit ceased due to everyone knowing me to be a dealer in musical equipment as well as a musician,and "expert". My personal life was a bit delayed due to being "the guy" everyone needed. I also got a bit of fatigue due to never sitting down unless I was doing a demo or on break/moment to relax but that was alright. Keeping an ever flowing routine of sending e-mails while running a section got a bit hard,but manageable.

Enjoyable part: As I said,I sold dreams to people; that feeling is like no other. Just to watch a kid barely half my age play something I can play at 23 is beautiful. I also see myself in all of those I help too,being the gatekeeper to a door that I remember opening so long ago with bright eyes and sore fingers. I'm thankful of everyone that crossed my path and trusted me to be their guide.

The pay structure is really bad. You technically have an hourly wage (typically it's the minimum wage for your area) but you get paid that against what you make in commission. To clarify, they consider your hourly as an "advance" on your commission pay. So if you made more money in commission than you did in your hourly, you get your commission minus what was paid to you already in your hourly paycheck. If your commission doesn't exceed what you were paid hourly, you simply don't get paid anything additional. This means you worked for minimum wage that month.
This pay structure would be okay if they let the sale associates purely focus on making sales, but they also expect you to merch, send out annoying custom emails, clean, and do other random things that prevent you from focusing on making sales. Also, the time you spend at the start of shift meeting or closing the store after hours also works against your commission. Because of this, they should change their pay structure to hourly plus commission.
To make things worse, they make a really big deal on making you sell Pro Coverage with every qualifying item you sell. If you don't make a certain percentage per month, they make you come in for a special meeting to help you sell it better. The time you spent in this meeting also works against your commission. If your percentage is really low, then you lose a cut of your commission as well.
It's also a very cutthroat environment which does not promote sales associates to work together, but rather compete with each other. If multiple associates help the same customer where a sale is made, there's usually a dispute as to how to separate the sale fairly to each associate and Guitar Center never implements a concrete policy as to how to handle this policy.
Vacation time is minimal and the benefits are okay but nothing to brag about. 
There's very few redeeming qualities to mention while working at Guitar Center. You do get to buy gear at cost, which is nice, but unless you are a top seller, you probably don't have much of income to spend on gear. You would think it would be cool to be around all this gear if you are a musician, but they don't like their associates playing the gear all the time. This always bugged me because playing the gear helps you learn the gear and sell it better. Also, it can give if the associates are having fun playing the gear, that can rub off on the customers and promote Guitar Center as being a fun environment. Instead the associates are usually stressed and it shows.
I really do not recommend working for Guitar Center unless they undergo a very positive management makeover.

The holidays are the wost. Rude and entitled customers, and if you sign up to take hours outside of your usual window, they completely disregard the availability you write down, and give whatever they want you to work instead. Honestly I think the Customer service department specifically is what makes the job undesirable. Every other department seemed to be under much less stress from the job than we were. I was constantly fixing other agents mistakes, and if I had to send out an email or reach out to a manufacturer I would be told to do it later and get back on the phone, which lead to a ton of customer service issues not getting resolved. Many agents were unable to find the time to fix things because management would very rarely give us permission to get off the phone to reach out to anyone. This in turn lead to customers calling in very angry that it has taken "x agent" so long to fix their issue and that they haven't heard back in weeks, and other agents would be yelled at and harrassed by cutomers because of this. I had been with this area of the company for over a year with multiple promises of getting promoted and none of them being followed through. I watched other less experienced agents get promoted to team lead positions, and then they would step down later because they realized they were not ready for it. Meanwhile my supervisor told me every other week that I was doing great and should apply for said position. I applied 3 times, per my supervisors recommendation, and never got anywhere, because I "just needed alittle more experience."
There were other positions as well that I was told by management to apply for that I did not receive. Empty promises seemed to be a trend in this setting. I noticed after awhile that the team lead position was pretty much a popularity contest. HR is a joke. I witnessed many situations where an emloyee lost a loved one outside of their immediate family or had a parent end up in the hospital from a near death experience and HR refused to condense any of their points or excuse any unrequested time off for it. One employee attempted suicide and was back at work the next day or he would be fired due to reaching maximum points. The pay was decent, and we made commission (if we ranked high enough in our stats anyway,) and we got paid vacation time as well as, honest very good, benefits. I transfered to a Guitar Center retail location and it has been significantly better.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Store manager 5 salaries reported	$59,000 per year
Sales associate 15 salaries reported	$11.25 per hour
Warehouse associate 5 salaries reported	$17.20 per hour
Maintenance technician 3 salaries reported	$26.33 per hour
Equipment operator 4 salaries reported	$17.75 per hour

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