"Well, What Are They Saying on Glassdoor?"

Using the Site Famous for Employee Reviews to
Help You Decide Where to Go for Guitar Lessons

Many folks are probably already familiar with Glassdoor and may well have even used the site before; if that’s not you, then a quick summation is that Glassdoor is a site where employees can “review” businesses where they work so that employers can be seen as a favorable place to work (or not).  If you haven’t been seeking a job in a while, and especially if you don’t expect to be seeking a job anytime soon, then you may think that Glassdoor doesn’t have much to offer you.  But there may be some additional information that you could get about a business via Glassdoor, regardless of whether you are looking at being employed by that company.

For instance, if you were going to buy an appliance and several stores had it for the same price, one thing you might factor in to help you decide where to make your purchase could be the Glassdoor reviews.  If one of your options stands out on that site, because it is more negatively viewed by employees than the others, then you could feel confident that the likelihood of dealing with employees that are possibly a bit disgruntled and exasperated before you even walk through the door, is maybe greater at that place.

Alternatively, if one of the options stands out because it is more positively viewed on Glassdoor than its rivals, then you could have a better expectation of dealing with eager and energetic employees that feel rewarded for their effort, and are therefore willing to put forth a lot of it.  These things aren’t guaranteed, of course, but this type of information can be very helpful because the info on Glassdoor con often give you a very different perspective than most any other review site that you’ll find a business on.

You can also learn little things about how a business operates by looking at the specific comments in Glassdoor—and this goes for the pros as well as the cons—and looking for themes and trends.  Sometimes you have to read between the lines, and sometimes you have to keep the type of business in mind; for instance, if a common pro listed by employees at a warehouse facility (one that does not interact with customers or the public in general) is that the bosses are understanding if they are a few minutes late from time to time—perhaps they can just stay a few minutes late to make up for it, for example.

But if that is a pro that employees commonly list for a retail store, for example, then you may find that the store won’t necessarily be open on time every day (because the person responsible for opening may not be able to be there on time every day), or that it may be understaffed at times.  In either the warehouse case or the retail store case, the employees would understandably appreciate management cutting them some slack there, and consider it a “pro”…but if you were a customer having to interact with someone on those terms, you may not feel quite the same about it.

So with that in mind, here are some of the pros from some of my competitors (I’m not going to name them, but you can look them up on Glassdoor yourself if you’d like and see these comments for yourself):

• • “Easy to show up and do what you love without the hassle of scheduling and contacting clients”
• • “The obvious pro is that the store manages pretty much all of the logistics and administration for handling lessons”
• • “Took me in with no experience”
• • “My bosses so far have been very understanding about time off, including for gigs, traveling, or family reasons”
• • “It’s a part time job so it’s never been a problem that I’m a gigging musician and have to go on tour with my band sometimes”
• • “Gain experience teaching lessons”
• • “Goes well with scheduling for playing gigs at night”
• • “Flexible in regards to playing shows or tours”

And then here are some cons from employees of those same competitors:

• • “Poor management and a corporate atmosphere”
• • “Management is absolutely toxic”
• • “Lack of clear communication”
• • “No written policies”
• • “Uneducated management”
• • “Management is pretty horrible, stuck in the past, afraid of change”
• • “Low pay. This was the lowest "studio" I ever worked for.”
• • “Majority of students don't show up.”
• • “The Lessons Manager often doesn't have any history managing students, teachers, or studios.”
• • “You can hear random customers playing poorly and loudly on the sales floor while you're teaching”

Of course, those aren’t the only pros and cons that were noted by current and former employees of those businesses, but that gives you an idea of what to expect at those places.  If you read between the lines on the first couple of pros, you realize that different people are all responsible for different things (so who is responsible when something doesn’t go right…and who would you need to talk to about it?); you can also see the recurring theme of teachers at some of those places not having taught before but are instead learning how to do it while you’re paying them full price.  Another common pro referred to flexible scheduling for tours and shows—which is great for the teacher who is a performer first and teacher second, but not so great for the student (unless you don’t mind having just any warm body give you a guitar lesson when your turn comes up, instead of knowing it would be the same teacher—the one that you’ve been getting along well with, and are progressing well with—each week).

And the worst of the cons seemed to be about a handful of things: disorganization, lack of clear policies, no freedom for the teachers to select material or curriculum (but at the same time, there were plenty of complaints about management—the folks in charge of material and curriculum—being out of touch, inexperienced, and often inept), and low pay.  Definitely keep that last one in mind whenever you’re comparing prices between a lessons studio or music store, and an independent instructor: the bulk of what you pay at a lessons studio or music store goes somewhere other than to the person that is providing you with the actual instruction.  An independent instructor will have some overhead as well, but not other folks on the payroll that take precedence over the instructors—who often are contracted and technically not employees (as far as benefits, etc. go) in many cases.  You can be confident that 100% of the pay (for purposes of this post, we can call “pay” whatever is left over after all overhead costs other than payroll are covered) for an independent instructor will go to the instructor—not to a store manager or to a shipping department manager, or to some person who happens to own a few franchises.

And you may be thinking, “Well, what do they say on Glassdoor about Stephen’s Guitar Lessons?”  And the answer is simple: since I am the only one here at Stephen’s Guitar Lessons, with no plans to ever hire anyone, I’m not eligible for a profile on a site geared for employees to talk candidly about employers.  So if you’re looking to take lessons from a business where the person who makes the most money has never even met (nor would they probably care to meet) the person who would be teaching you every week, or even the person managing the facility where you would be taking lessons, then there are several to choose from.  If you’re looking to take lessons where you may interact with a handful of different people—your instructor, the scheduler, the person at the front desk, etc.—and you aren’t concerned if any of them are all that qualified to do (or all that interested in excelling at) their job, then there are several options for you to choose from.

But if you’re looking to take lessons from someone who knows their stuff (I studied not just music but also music education), who has kept up their skills through regular playing and increased them through continuing education (there are several places on my website and my blog where I talk about my years of experience in those areas; please check them out for more info), and who is demonstrably invested in each student’s success (as evidenced by all of the extras I give my students that no other guitar instructor does: special deals on the best in guitar accessories; lots of free stuff, including free lessons; a professional, clean, comfortable, and engaging lessons environment; a convenient location plus online lesson options; and the “VIP” Experience, which I exclusively offer and which is described in detail on my website and my blog), then you really only have one place to choose in metro Atlanta: Stephen’s Guitar Lessons.

I've played for decades—since the late '80s—and I learned from some of the best players and teachers around. I studied music education in college, I've spent countless hours playing guitar (in practices, rehearsals, jam sessions, live gigs, recording sessions, and other musical environments), and I've given thousands of lessons to hundreds of students, online and in person, since I started giving lessons professionally way back in 2010. I've studied countless method books and instructional materials—more than many players—and I'm even in the process of writing my own method book; all of the exercises and instructional material I use are basically excerpts from the method book I'm working on (and the music for the songs that we go over in lessons is often tabbed by me, but if I didn't create the original I always customize it for my individual students).

Ready to get started? Give me a call (or send me a text) at VIP-PLAY-GTR (847-752-9487), or contact me through the website to set up your FREE intro lesson today!

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