Pros
You get to learn about the different levels of instruments (Student to Pro lvl), Manufacturer details that can be interesting. Making friends with lesson teachers is always rewarding and makes the job fun. Events are great for networking and great ways to make commission which is always a plus
Cons
Training is blatantly ineffective. Instead of being taught how to work the register or the unstable hard to navigate system, you get taught how to talk to customers. There's a script for EVERYTHING that you're expected to follow to a tee. Most scripts are outdated and involve you going into a 3 paragraph infomercial about the company (as if someone would actually listen to all that). You're expected to recite it on cue at any given time or else you'll be in trouble. One of the greatest problems is the companys reluctance to address their new horrifyingly unstable system that runs everything. It's been over a year, and no one has a firm grip on it yet. It's incredibly hard to navigate let alone understand and the reference guide isn't any help. The biggest problem it has is it will overbill someone for hundreds of dollars at a time resulting in seemingly endless email chains. What's worse is that as an employee, you're NOT allowed to complain about it despite being yelled at by rightfully angry customers calling the store non stop. This caused a lot of employees to dread coming to work because it was highly likely they would get ripped up over the phone by customers. Communication above the store level is also a big problem since everything has to be done via email. Instrument didn't show up to the school? Email the Ed rep and HOPE they read it within a week. Need a refund ? Email Billing and they may feel like fixing it. But they won't actually call the customer to hash it out with them; resulting in the store being the go between the two. The more parties involved, the worse it gets, often resulting in a measuring contest between them. Of course, they won't actually look for a solution. The only real way to solve most issues is to break the rules at the store level. They'll advertise commission to you as a regular thing, but don't bet on it. You'll probably get commission from events but that's it. Corporate seems quite oblivious to any problems whatsoever . Every week, they send out emails about new stores and promotions as if the business isn't going up in flames. Definitely not worth staying with due to extreme micromanagement from my manager who would tell me how to write emails or just try write them for me.