Used to be great, new CEO did 180 degree flip on culture - Anonymous employee Guitar Center Employee Review

3.0
Jun 17, 2015
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

- Good schedules and relatively medium workload for retail

Cons

- New CEO has gutted much of what made company worth sticking around at. Laid off or fired many people to save money - New CEO has ruined employee purchase and financing programs which is what kept a lot of part time staff on board - New uniform programs go against the "Be yourself" ethos company was founded on - Corporate management can be both overly micro managing and inept at realizing what's going on in stores ate the same time - Many "In the field" jobs that people aspired to have and were vital to proper training and morale have been eliminated

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5.0
Jan 9, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Got to work with so many people

Cons

Long hours during holidays were rough

1.0
Jun 29, 2026
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Employee discounts are the biggest reason why people work here, as the discount is really good.

Cons

Your experience working at Guitar Center will largely depend on which store you work at. Some stores have a good management team and employees and are fun to work at. But a lot of stores do not have a qualified management team and they have a staff that is not fun to work with. My location needed a new store manager and instead of promoting the ops manager who knew the store better than anyone else and was with the company for 15+ years working at multiple locations, corporate instead promoted a customer service lead who had been with the company less than 2 years and didn't have management experience. These are the people that corporate decides so often to run their stores.

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