In my recent cleaning, I ran across a business card from when I worked as a guitar salesperson at Marguerite's Music.
Marguerite's was the biggest local music store and I was a regular customer from the time I started playing at age 14. Over the years, I got to know the employees and they would do things like play an L7 CD over their speakers (probably annoying everyone else there), just so they could tell me how they got the guitars to sound so thick.
When I was 19, I had been working at a local record store and the owner was a creepo who also happened to engage in gender-based pay inequity (pay transparency, FTW!). I wanted out, but didn't know where to go.
I remember sitting in my basement apartment and getting the call out of nowhere. It was Lynda, Marguerite's daughter, on the phone and she asked if I wanted a job as a guitar salesperson.
I said, "You know I don't even know how to change a string, right?" She said that it didn't matter and they'd teach me. And they did.
Somehow they saw that I was enthusiastic about guitar and could talk to people. And the rest could be learned.
I was recently thinking about this leap of faith that jumpstarted a lifetime of gear obsession.
And I thought: what's harder to learn-- how to talk to people, or the difference between a single-coil and a humbucker?
When hiring, employers often put so much emphasis on technical understanding that they often forget the importance of actually being able to make a positive connection with their customers and other employees.
Of course, this can end poorly, as we've all had negative experiences with music store staff who don't know as much as they should. *Someone* there should have some deeper knowledge, or know how to find it.
But, different customers have different needs, and while one customer might need to know the intricate differences between a '60s and '70s strat, that level of detail probably isn't necessary for everyone.
For that reason, when I started out, I would get a lot of the beginner customers or parents looking for gifts for their kids. Could I handle that? Definitely. Did I eventually learn about the differences between '60s and '70s strats. Definitely.
While they taught me about different types of tubes, I was able to provide a different perspective and hopefully model how to interact with customers (and tell the Peavey rep that the mudflap girls on the XXX might be offensive to some).
Valuing technical knowledge over empathy and interpersonal skills has led many people to avoid shops altogether. I hope that folks can take a look at their hiring processes and assess the weight they give to particular skills-- especially when those skills are biased toward people who tend to already be represented in stores. It can have a huge impact on both customers and employees. I know my life was forever changed by that opportunity.