West Marine Employee Job Reviews in the United States

"fun place to work not for a career"

What do you like about working at West Marine?

"the fun atmosphere to work in"

What don't you like about working at West Marine?

"no time off always worked weekends and nights"

What suggestions do you have for management?

"pay for what people know and not just a body to fill a space"

"I can not recommend a company that fired me because of work related injury."

"better late than never"

What do you like about working at West Marine?

"nice customers, pretty good products to sell"

Do you have any tips for others interviewing with this company?

"display your knowledge and love of boating. The job is enjoyable while the company is not nice to work for."

What don't you like about working at West Marine?

"micro management above the store level; lack of appeal opportunities on termination decisions."

What suggestions do you have for management?

"remember you are dealing with people, not robots"

"It was a good part time job while in college but is not a place to start your career"

What do you like about working at West Marine?

"I had the ability to take off when needed"

What don't you like about working at West Marine?

"Managers didn't have the requirements for their positions held and the pay wasn't very good"

"Great people but no job security."

Do you have any tips for others interviewing with this company?

"Learn about all kinds of boats"

What don't you like about working at West Marine?

"No job security"

What suggestions do you have for management?

"Cut down on the number of employees per store so that you can afford to keep everyone all year round. Communicate to any employee up front if they will be seasonal."

What do you like about working at West Marine?

"Fun atmosphere, great team feeling, low stress, fexible schedules, great customers!"

Do you have any tips for others interviewing with this company?

"Be open, honesty is always the best policy. and be FUN!"

What don't you like about working at West Marine?

"There really is not anything I dislike about working there."

What suggestions do you have for management?

"Maintain the present atmosphere of open communication and mutual achievement."

What do you like about working at West Marine?

"Corporate offices located near Santa Cruz, CA and there is the opportunity to use the company sail boat if you like. The Store environment is very positive and energetic.There are a couple of newer Board Members with legitimate Retail backgrounds (not just sailing buddies) so they are pushing for more out of the CEO and Exec team which is great... they should push harder."

Do you have any tips for others interviewing with this company?

"Play up your boating experience and background. You should be OK working in an environment where you have very little control over your business as management micro manages. Change agents need not apply as you will be very frustrated with the lack of support."

What don't you like about working at West Marine?

"No pay for performance, mediocre benefits. Decision by committee culture results in low creativity and no accountability for individuals. Annual bonus are redesigned each year to pay out less and less and there is no personal component to the calculation. The executive team is too heavily focused on politics between their silos. Secure job but most of the A-players inevitably leave as they are continually blocked from making real strides forward. Culturally, this company is old and stodgy and once hired your position will likely not change for many years, nor will you salary as annual increases barely go above 1-2.5%. The company is showing year over year profits which is great, unfortunately, a large bulk of this is from bonus restructuring and the primary competitor going out of business."

What suggestions do you have for management?

"Reward people for performance. Promote people based on skill sets rather than reputation, favored status, or perception. Allow new ideas that are out of the box. Aspire for larger growth over all. Fire non performers w/o regard to their familial connections to Execs. Pay more to attract real performers and then add incentive's for retention."

What do you like about working at West Marine?

"Working in the back room and not having to deal with rude customers that abound in Miami"

Do you have any tips for others interviewing with this company?

"Don't consider making it a career. If you need cash for the short term, look at it just as that."

What don't you like about working at West Marine?

"Nothing was ever good enough for management! I regularly went above and beyond expectations, and was met with a Meh, even with all my responsibilities as manager, I could still do your job in my spare time. Nope, not exactly encouraging!"

What suggestions do you have for management?

"I would include fair pay, and not require employees to up-sell certain plans to people who did not need them, and clearly did not want them."

"I love my job and my team at West Marine, but salaries area are not competitive."

What do you like about working at West Marine?

"I love my job and my team. Boating is a fun industry."

Do you have any tips for others interviewing with this company?

"This is a pretty good place to work for in Santa Cruz county."

What don't you like about working at West Marine?

"Salaries are too low, and there is not enough server support."

What suggestions do you have for management?

"Please raise salaries and improve server speeds and add more IT people."

"Great"

What do you like about working at West Marine?

"the ability to take care of customer in the way that worked best for the customer."

Do you have any tips for others interviewing with this company?

"know about boats and the porducts needed on boats before the interview."

What don't you like about working at West Marine?

"There was nothing I did not like about working for the company."

What suggestions do you have for management?

"No visits on the known busy sales days, with out advanced notice."

"I worked for West Marine from March 2019 - September 2019 while I was home from school. I learned skills such as time management and how to properly greet and interact with customers. I was very happy with my work at West Marine however I now need a job that will pay a salary."

"I worked at West Marine since 2005. Great company to work for. Family oriented and associates and customers always come first. Allow associates to grow and develop their skills and move forward ."