Christie's reviews

3.7

71% would recommend to a friend

(741 total reviews)

Bonnie Brennan

100% approve of CEO

55% positive business outlook

Christie's has an employee rating of 3.7 out of 5 stars, based on 741 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The Christie's employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Retail & Wholesale industry (3.5 stars).

Reviews by job title

741 reviews
2.0
Jun 10, 2017

Manager

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Great environment for learning. Exposure to the upper tiers of art and society. Unprecedented access to masterpieces.

Cons

Nepotism and Sexism prevent great people from being prompted. If you aren't from a specific tier of society or unable to capitalize on your relationships, forget moving up the ladder at Christie's. The upper management is divorced from understanding the needs of their workforce. There is a severe lack of long term vision. Compensation is below market value at comerable roles at other companies, but generally equitable for the auction world. If you ever want to support yourself without a husband, put in your two years and move on to another industry.

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Christie's Response
8y
Dear Glassdoor member, we are sorry to hear of your experience. Christie’s strives to create a meritocratic culture, where people are recognized for their skills and ability and not for their connections. We have a performance review process to help us assess employee contributions and award them appropriately. Thank you for your thoughts, Christie’s HR Team
1.0
Apr 25, 2018
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Great access to objects and works of art if that is your primary interest in a job

Cons

- Poor work-life balance. In the larger departments working 60-70 hours a week during busy periods (generally 4-6 months out of the year) is the normal - some roles regularly work even more than that for weeks on end - Very low pay. Company knows there are few alternative options for people who want to work in the industry and therefore has small incentive to allocate any more budget than is absolutely necessary to employee salaries - Limited growth potential. In many cases promotions carry only nominal pay-rises that are incommensurate with increases in responsibility - Company has made numerous statements in the past year about being committed to and investing in its "people" but many employees, especially those at intermediate stages of their careers, have seen tangible, meaningful results - Have had multiple experiences of a senior level manager making both implicit and very clearly explicit promises & commitments about career development only to have them be conveniently forgotten about, reneged on completely, or in one specific case adamantly pretend that an offer was ever even made - Company has very little ability to retain talent

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Christie's Response
6y
Thank you for taking the time to leave us a review, we do appreciate all feedback and take your comments seriously. We are pleased to hear that you gained great access to see the objects and works of art that were on display for our upcoming auctions. It is a shame to hear that you have a negative outlook on the business and felt the work-life balance was ‘poor’, whilst volumes of workload will vary according to the auction schedule, if you are feeling overwhelmed, please do speak to your line manager. In addition, we are sorry to hear that you feel pay is ‘very low’, as we aim to be in the upper quartile for our sector and keep this constantly under review. With regards to your comments on development, what you outline is not acceptable and should be raised with your local HR team.
2.0
Jan 12, 2018
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

- Name recognition is great-- Christie's is considered a special type of "luxury" brand. - You'd get great experience since it's the best auction company in the world. Good benefits - People are generally nice-- the senior executives try to make time for you to meet for coffee and chat if you want to network

Cons

- In reality, you need to have rich, art collector parents to get a decent job with possibility of upward mobility. It's super nepotistic. The whole business is built around winning over new clients and retaining the old ones. Of course, there are many support departments like client services and bids, but there isn't much place to move up in those departments. And there isn't much innovative projects to take on in support departments. - It's super traditional and has a rigid corporate hierarchy. Also, old technology. It's not 1970s!! If you try to do something creative, you get shunned by management. - Also, pay is horrible. You get less than 2% pay raise per year and almost a nonexistent bonus.

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Christie's Response
8y
Dear Glassdoor member, thank you for taking the time to leave us a review. Your feedback is certainly valued and we will continue to review areas of improvement within the business. Thank you for your thoughts, Christie’s HR.
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Glassdoor has 1,208 Christie's reviews submitted anonymously by Christie's employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if Christie's is right for you.