Sotheby's Reviews

It is not a coincidence that the majority of reviews on Sotheby's are entirely positive or entirely negative, with positive reviews often ascribed from senior employees. Recognizing that the art world is a fiercely competitive industry, Sotheby's epitomizes the allegory of standing on the little people to reach success for itself alone, with those on the bottom entirely crushed while those on the top reap the rewards. Though the company relies on the minority of qualified and talented staff who managed to slip between the cracks of nepotism, the majority who wander the halls in Louboutin heels dripping in Chanel are present only because they themselves come from a circle of wealth and influence. Most do no have degrees in art or even prior experience in the industry, but enter the company none-the-less with messiah complexes on the belief that somehow they alone can fix whats broken in the company's constant state of 'adjustment'. Unless you work within a smaller specialty department, almost everyone selfishly guards their assets while expecting full disclosure from others. Management at both junior and senior levels predominantly suffers because few seek to bridge divides between departments or individuals, nor does anyone seek to nurture team development. The whole company operates with a "head on fire" mentality, with the top making promises to clients they can't keep, constantly pushing the buck until the greatest load and responsibility falls on the lowest level and most under-compensated individuals - forced to make quick turn arounds that ultimately line the pockets of those back on top. The company does not care about you. Your peers do not care about you. Career advancement is near impossible unless daddy's a mark, and at the end of the day, the company only cares about the shareholders success. If the cut-throat nature, chaotic workloads, or abysmal compensation don't beat you down, the total lack of compassion and humanity will.

Unfortunately, that's because this place is a hellhole! Never have I encountered another employer as toxic as Sotheby's. Extremely bad pay, absolutely no respect or human decency shown to employees, awful clients and even worse client management strategy encouraging their abuse. The training is a joke -- the competent employees either learned the job elsewhere or had to scrape and claw their way to some level of understanding of the internal processes and systems (which they are then not rewarded for at all as their less efficient coworkers use their lack of understanding and laziness to get away with pushing their workload off on others -- and are somehow still not fired, and even receive promotions) Upper management has even less of an idea what is required to efficiently do the job, and frequently make underlings do mental acrobatics and crazy negotiations with operations and legal teams to secure strange exceptions, just because the higher level business getters don't want to learn or enforce basic requirements. The extremely high stress level and noxious attitude permeating the company already would make this a very bad place to survive with your mental health intact. Coupled with the insane schedule (because they underhire and underpay and have a very high turnover rate with not enough staff members!) and the frequent days that stretch from 8AM- 1AM, this job is utterly life-ruining.