Growth and Leadership Opportunities
We want every person at Sweetwater to thrive and reach their fullest potential. We believe that requires a balanced investment in our people’s professional and personal development. At Sweetwater, you’ll have the opportunity to develop not only as a leader, but as a well-rounded person. Here are just a few of the development opportunities available to you as a Sweetwater employee.
Sweetwater provides all employees the opportunity to join a monthly leadership series called SweetLeader lunches. At this monthly SweetLeader lunch session, we discuss and develop fundamental leadership and team-building principles. These sessions are led by a diverse group of individuals, including employees from many different departments as well as local community leaders. All employees are welcome and encouraged to participate in our SweetLeader lunch sessions.
If you can’t make it to the SweetLeader lunch, head over to SweetLeaders Central online and watch the session at your convenience. Once there, you’ll find other fantastic, curated leadership resources including book reviews and recommendations, links to helpful sites, leadership videos, and the SweetLeader Voices blog featuring original content about what it takes to be your best — all available to everyone at Sweetwater.
If you're looking for learning that's a little more on the technical side, check out our SweetGeeks Speak sessions hosted once a month internally and twice a year publicly. SweetGeeks Speak is a group focused on showcasing the next generation of retail and marketing technologies at Sweetwater and in the Fort Wayne community. Previous topics have included e-mail marketing strategy and technology, smart distribution centers, data-driven decision making, SOLID programming principles, and programming a MIDI synthesizer. SweetGeeks brings teams together from across Sweetwater to collaborate and stay on top of the latest advances in technology.
In addition to these great leadership and development resources available to everyone, every Sales Engineer starts at Sweetwater by attending a full-time, 13 week, highly intensive immersion program we call Sweetwater University. Over the course of those 13 full work weeks — and over 350 classes — new hires build an incredible foundation of knowledge about not only gear but also the tools they will need to run a successful business. Sales Engineers also attend weekly trainings with Sweetwater leaders and industry experts and — through our vast network of vendor relationships — enjoy incredible access to some of the most talented minds in the music industry. While the entire Sweetwater University program is designed specifically for Sales Engineers, there are many core culture classes that nearly every Sweetwater employee attends.
At Sweetwater, we’re also invested in the personal growth of our employees. We are the title sponsor for the Fort Wayne Global Leadership Summit and offer employees the opportunity to join. We offer employees free, confidential one-on-one counselling sessions with lawyers, employee-benefits specialists, and mental-health professionals. We have a personal trainer on staff and available to employees for no charge as well as regular health and wellness training and classes. We encourage community involvement, and the generosity of Chuck and Lisa Surack has helped create opportunities for broad service in many local philanthropic and culturally significant organizations.
In short, we want you to be the best version of you possible and will provide you some incredible opportunities for growth and leadership. We want you at your best, not just because there is a benefit for Sweetwater, but because we care about you, your personal fulfillment, and the people you head home to at the end of the day.