Pros
There are only 2 unique reasons for working at Guitar Center: the discounts and the opportunity to go to NAMM. You get, on average, 50% off most equipment, so if you're a musician looking to build your own studio, then you're not going to get better deals than as an employee at an actual music company like Guitar Center (the downside, of course, is that you have to work at Guitar Center). Also, all employees automatically get a pass to go to NAMM. Need I say more for you music enthusiasts? Other pluses worth mentioning include the decent health insurance benefits (even for part-timers) and the chill co-workers.
Cons
Guitar Center is a business run by musicians, not businesspeople. And that's why it's failing so badly. Musicians know squat about how to run a business! Corporate doesn't understand that investing in their human capital is the single greatest action they could take to increase profitability. Instead, they foolishly think that severely underpaying employees will somehow translate to great employee performance and high sales. No. That's not how it works. So where to begin? Let's start with the green screens. Yes. Green screens. Are you kidding me? GC, you need to update your systems. This isn't 1980. Making your customers wait for ages to be checked out because you insist on maintaining an archaic system is not only cheap and annoying but unfriendly toward your profit figures. The low pay--and I do mean low. Guitar Center obviously does not value its employees considering everyone is making minimum wage as a base and then "commission" on top of that (quoted because their commission structure is laughably pitiful). The dress code. Now, I'll admit it's pretty standard (collared shirt and jeans/pants), but this is a music store built around music culture. Why in the world are employees not allowed to wear band shirts (assuming no profanity)? Everyone smokes here. In fact, so many workers smoke that GC started offering a Quit Smoking program. That should tell you how stressful and soul-crushing working at Guitar Center is. After all, the happier people are, the less likely they are to smoke.
