Musician's Friend Reviews

Pros

Opportunity for growth
Relaxed environment
Good work life balance
Technically sound people
Good HR team

Cons

Management makes many decisions without considering the employee's opinions

Advice to Senior Management

Involve the employees and ask for feedback about reorganization issues

Pros

The coworkers had a really big sense of family. Walking into the job everyone on my team made me feel welcome.
The team leader was helpful and kind.
The managers were helpful.
There was a lot of freedom with credits and what we could do for customers.

Cons

The customers are awful! I got screamed at constantly for not knowing a ton about the instrument they played.
I got yelled at for not explaining was 1 or 2 day shipping is.
I got in trouble with management quite a bit over attendance, but I had only missed one day, and when questioned, they balked and didn't have reasons.
Overall, not enough training.

Advice to Senior Management

I think it's important to give a little bit more support or feedback. More training would be nice too. Also, stop hiring people that do not have knowledge of computers.

Pros

some of the staff are pretty neat people.

Cons

You will be overworked and underpaid and under appreciated is a promise if you work here! poor communication and training are just a few of the major issues in this company. Technologies malfunction frequently and telemarketing calls coming into center screw up sales conversions. company is grossly understaffed and push overtime and have too many people on a team for Team lead development after training. Schedules are randomized so no telling what 2 days you have off. Vacation is often declined as center is always understaffed.

Advice to Senior Management

Listen to the employees who actually talk to customers or do the work first hand. There are plenty of opportunities for improvement.

Pros

The people. Anyone not in management is cool. Once you get to that level it's a different world. It opened my eyes. It's not just the regular reps who are mistreated and unappreciated. It's lower management as well. For the work. The pay is embarrassing. Even HR is mean. They will be so nice to you during the interview process and your first day. After that, MF might as well not even have an HR department. I can honestly say I don't know one person here that likes their job. It really sucks because it's only getting worse. The people here are really friendly and nice. Except management of course.

Cons

So many. The pay is awful. I work 50 hours a week. Makine 13.50 an hour that's skipping breaks and taking short lunches. Which is very common here. They make huge changes without considering the implications and no communication. You will hate your life if you work here. Their training program is terrible, the pressure is so high that if you fail you are not given help, just introduced to the door. They make billions but can't fix computers or simple glitches that big companies shouldn't have. They will give you 60 hours of work to do in a 40 hour week. Run for your life.

Advice to Senior Management

Stop treating your employees like they are nothing. Stop asking managment to work non stop and come in on their days off for no money.

Pros

great teamwork attitude
high turnover means easy advancement
fun company events
was able to attend industry conferences
great employee discount

Cons

upper management has no idea whats going on and doesn't or can't communicate that to staff
company priorities are always changing

Advice to Senior Management

Get stable, be more proactive in hiring and retaining the best talent, be more focused on top priorities, improve company wide communication

Pros

Fun people to work with. Get to talk about music and gear all day.

Cons

Management does not care about their employees. Big changes without regard. Great if you want to dread going to work.

Advice to Senior Management

Treat your employees with respect. There are a lot of good, hard working people here. Don't throw them away.

Pros

Decent people. The product is cool, but that only goes so far.

Cons

They will low-ball your salary and expect long hours. Whatever it takes!

Pros

Once upon a time Musician's Friend was a great place to work. It was a growing company with opportunity for anyone that wanted to work for it. There are employees working here that have been doing so for eighteen years because of it. The people that work here are friendly and fun. The work is challenging, but in the past it was rewarding as well.

Cons

The new style of management that has been brought on by Bain Capital seems to only enhance the arrogance of the narcissistic tyrant I have been forced to work for. Bain seems to think Musician's Friend is competing with Amazon.com. Musician's Friend simply isn't capable of competing on such a scale. Bain has announced that the company will move from Medford to Los Angeles, and now they have frozen the hiring. The workload that was once challenging and rewarding is now crushing the remaining staff that are desperately working on their Linkedin accounts and resumes looking for a job.

Advice to Senior Management

Get a job! The one you have is almost gone. Bain will finish running the brand into the ground later.

Pros

There are a great group of staff and was a fun work environment to be around versus other boring jobs.

Cons

The pay wasn't the best. I didn't see much opportunity to move up in the company without moving to a new state.

Advice to Senior Management

Show employees more respect and add more incentives then what you are currently doing, but overall keep doing what your doing.

Pros

The Music Industry is a great industry. The people here are smart, committed, fun, and hard working. We have all type's of employee run committee's to get involved in (Green, Charitable Giving, Vibes, etc.), we have Musician's Jams at local businesses (House bands - made up of employee's and they perform for free), we have company picnics, and holiday parties. The employee discount is great too! The business recognizes employee performance each month and employees recognize each other every month - Rock Star Award. I love it here!

Cons

We are growing fast, so we are in that transition stage of small company to big company. Some people like the growth because it means opportunity, some don't because things are changing and the demands are more.

Advice to Senior Management

Keep communicating and letting us all know what is happening and why. I really like the town halls, they are very informative and I like learning more about the company.