Pros
The employees you work with are great. It's abunch of musicians who want to talk about music and have a big interest in it. The discount is also great as well! Everything you buy is at BASE COST. Generally that's anywhere from 30% - 50% off from Guitar Center's GLP price. Lower end or proprietary gear sits closer on that 50% off line.
Cons
The commission structure is completely outdated and is slowly being lowered for new hires. To break it down: you make 8% on Gross Sales and 1.5% of Gross Profit. That on a good month can equal out to about $1,000. Now your hourly rate is minimum wage, so take a full month's worth of minimum wage and minus $1,000 from that. The left over is your commission check. The pay structure is also poor too. The pay days (with the exception of Massachusetts stores) land on the 10 and 25 with commission checks on the 25. So there are often times where you can work for 15-18 days straight without receiving a single paycheck. Oh, and the federal government taxes commissions and bonuses by about 20%. The support from corporate is a complete joke from the district level to the main office in California. More often then not you can expect the higher ranking managers to be one of the "good old boys". Bonuses from high store level management to the regional district level are often based on made of metrics by the corporate office that can change rapidly midway through the quarter with an entirely new structure in place. The payroll and HR departments are completely lacking in any ability to help any individual employee. More often then not some sort of approval is required from either your General Manger or your District Manager leading to lengthy issues regarding pay that often get unresolved. The training per each store is entirely dependent on the Sales and Training Manager, which would work out quite well if the Sales and Training Manager wasn't expected to run the store half the time. More often then not either the employee will be expected to be train WHILE assisting customers and expecting to make enough sales to sufficiently "fade" (earn a commission check).