Pros
You will get amazing deals on gear either through the employee purchase program, or through GAIN. Employee purchases get 10% above cost, and many GAIN deals are for 10% below standard dealer cost. I have met some amazing people during my time with Guitar Center, but also have encountered some less than desirable people, which is to be expected at any job. Inbound calls, so no cold calling.
Cons
Attendance policy is designed to weed out people. However, this policy only applies to hourly workers and never salary workers such as management, who consistently come in late, leave early, take longer lunches and breaks than allotted, with no issues. The worst has to be HR in the Salt Lake office. Rude, don't care about anything, and never can give you an exact answer to your questions. The entire culture comes across as jr high clique, to the point where promotions are based off of qualifications such as one of the managers saying "oh, I like him" without actually saying why. There is pretty much no room for advancement unless you are willing to move to another state, which not everybody is able to do at the drop of a hat. Systems are horrible and are constantly going down, which includes the phone system. Don't ever say on the phone that the reason it is taking you 20 minutes to process a 5 minute return call is the systems or you will get written up for it. Honestly, the entire office works off of write ups and the fear they install. Retention is a joke. I am the only person left from my training class of 22 people after a little over 1 year. Most people in my class left due to being lied to about hours, and how they hire pretty much everyone in at part time. The pay is very low for the amount of abuse you will receive from both rude customers and management. They are constantly asking for additional hours, and will try and bully you into working them, even if you are not able to due to outside of work commitments. Overtime is rarely approved, so it is the usual work me up to 39.9 hours and no more for the week. I once had the manager of my department take me into a office to speak to me about not being able to pick up additional hours. He told me that I was not doing my part for the company, and that I needed to take ownership. I tried explaining to him that with my young children and wife, I am only able to work hours during certain times. I am sure that when I was interviewed by him for a promotion to team lead, that I was not considered due to this, even though I feel I have more qualifications than those they hired.