Sweetwater reviews

3.8

71% would recommend to a friend

(537 total reviews)
avatar

Mike Clem

84% approve of CEO

67% positive business outlook

Sweetwater has an employee rating of 3.8 out of 5 stars, based on 537 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The Sweetwater employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Retail & Wholesale industry (3.4 stars).

Reviews by job title

537 reviews
5.0
Jun 27, 2025
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

There is no other place in the Music Industry that can provide the stability that a career at Sweetwater can provide. You have the ability to be immersed in a culture that celebrates music and music makers. Whether your job is talking about gear all day long, helping market the gear we sell or a more support scentric role, Sweetwater is a musician's dream. Fort Wayne is cool too. Compared to other cities I have lived, Fort Wayne has a surprisingly great music scene, primarily due to the fact that there are thousands of Sweetwater employees who like to gig in the local scene.

Cons

Although there are promotional opportunities, make sure you are patient and willing to put the work in with your current role and team for ~2 years. Once you prove yourself to be a great employee who cares deeply about the work you do and the experience you are creating for others, the promotional opportunities will find you.

1.0
Aug 20, 2014

Don't drink the coolaide

Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Cheap and sometimes free gear, mostly good coworkers, free turkey during thanksgiving.

Cons

Insurance is pretty poor. Constant up and down sales. If you don't make 90+ calls a day for your first 3-5 years, then you're not going to do well. Senior SEs watch younger SEs like a hawk. Sales management does not listen to the ideas of their employees. They don't tell the staff the true wholesale cost of items, so you're not really getting the percentage of commission you expect. Long hours. Boring meetings 3 times a week. No advancement. Management monitors you very closely. Even the food at the "Diner" is incredibly underwhelming. Very low base pay, so if you don't sell a lot, then you're going to have issues paying your bills. Very little time off. They just finished a huge expansion of the sales department, but won't expand the support staff, so many of the things that make Sweetwater better than the competitors is starting to become less reliable. The corporate atmosphere is very much cult of personality. If you don't follow the word of Chuck, you're done.

1.0
Apr 11, 2024
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Any pros aren't relevant anymore.

Cons

I’m not going to dive into any technical/worklife/process issues because frankly all of that pales in comparison to why I quit. I quit because despite their claims, Sweetwater does NOT have a zero tolerance policy towards harassment and discrimination and I’m proof of that. The following, up until I quit, took place over the course of about half a year. A coworker was harassing me, manipulating, and in general being extremely unprofessional. After a month or so I reported him (which honestly I didn’t even feel safe to do) and all HR did from my perspective was give him a slap on the wrist. He still worked there and there was no prevention of interactions at work so thank you for putting me in that situation. Things kept escalating, I stopped reporting because I no longer trusted HR, and eventually I reported more and interactions were finally prevented which left me wondering what it actually takes to get fired around here. He also tried to harm my reputation/credibility with lies so I decided to give HR a mountain of evidence against him just in case they didn’t believe me. Yet again, no hard consequences from my perspective, just words. So I quit because I’m not going to work for a company that keeps men like that around. A handful of months later, lo and behold, he was having issues with another woman! So what exactly did keeping him around get you? You lost a major asset (me) and you enabled him to have issues with another woman! I’m beyond words. That time-period was hell for me as I can only assume it was for the other woman. You'll never understand how hopeless and alone I felt. That’s on every single person involved in the situation who had the power to make a difference and didn’t. I’m sure Sweetwater will reply to this trying to save face but I really don’t need to be any more gaslit than I already was. Now is the time to listen, reflect, and ensure that this never happens again.

avatar
Sweetwater Response
2y
Thank you for sharing your experience. Given the amount of detail you've included here, I'm aware of your specific situation. While I obviously won't go into sensitive and confidential details on a public forum, I am confident that our HR team met with you at length to discuss your concerns and to handle this situation in the most appropriate way and with a deep concern for your wellbeing. Our HR team members care about our people here at Sweetwater and are regularly put into situations of having to navigate relational dynamics that oftentimes have complexity that can't be fully unpacked via a Glassdoor review. They are human beings with big hearts who take their work very seriously and spend hours upon hours working to shape the best working environment possible - and at the very top of the list is a commitment to caring for their coworkers. These individuals would be heartbroken to know that you were anything less than satisfied with how they handled your concerns given the amount of time they worked with you on it and the steps that were taken. It's never about saving face for these team members - it's only about doing the right thing to care for people well. However, I understand and respect that you have a different perspective about the solutions that were provided and the level of care you received - and we'll take your feedback into account. If you'd ever like to share in even more detail with me or another member of the team, we'd be happy to discuss further with you. I wish you nothing but the very best going forward. - Jeff Ostermann, Chief People & Culture Officer
Viewing 1 - 3 of 537 Reviews

Glassdoor has 566 Sweetwater reviews submitted anonymously by Sweetwater employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if Sweetwater is right for you.