Smithsonian reviews

4.1

66% would recommend to a friend

(508 total reviews)
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Dr. David J. Skorton

75% approve of CEO

64% positive business outlook

Smithsonian has an employee rating of 4.1 out of 5 stars, based on 508 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have an excellent working experience there. The Smithsonian employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Nonprofit & NGO industry (3.7 stars).

Reviews by job title

508 reviews
5.0
Mar 23, 2015

Amazing place to work.

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Amazing opportunity to work closely with artifacts of the museum, really friendly coworkers, great office

Cons

Not many full time positions available. Besides this I can not think of any other cons.

4.0
Mar 16, 2015
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Things are well organized, you are not left figuring things out for yourself. People are very friendly and always there to help.

Cons

Very silo-d work environment. The different departments are very isolated from each other, and do not communicate other than officially.

4.0
Mar 3, 2015

Creative work in a bureaucratic setting

Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

compensation is excellent, benefits excellent, access to materials and collections cannot be matched, national prestige is great,

Cons

but another system of rewards operates inside the institution, which can make it hard to remember all the excellent opportunities: time off policies depend heavily on your supervisor's interpretation of your responsibilities; large gap between job descriptions at "humanities" agencies vs "science" agencies, even if titles (aka "Curator") are the same. Some Curators are responsible for exhibits, some are not, some write exhibition texts, some do not, some are subject to evaluation from outside committees of their peers, some are reviewed only by those inside the institutions, and recognition from the institution is rarely more than lukewarm. Advice: make sure to travel, and get feedback from your professional peers, do not rely on supervisors (who have little incentive to be supportive) or institutional colleagues (whose standards can be too low because limited to what goes on "at home"). It will be as good as you make it.

Viewing 439 - 441 of 508 Reviews

Glassdoor has 797 Smithsonian reviews submitted anonymously by Smithsonian employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if Smithsonian is right for you.