They work you hard for the money. - Photographer The RealReal Employee Review

2.0
Oct 30, 2020
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Free food sometimes, coffee and a lot of the people I worked with were pretty awesome. Offered insurance immediately.

Cons

When I left, you were working 10 hours shifts on your feet. They micromanage break times, and did not allow you to sit in the photo studio. Tough expectations on goal meeting meant lead to good employees getting injured on the job while attempting to meet expectations. These injuries often happened from lifting mannequins over and over again in the same ways and causing repetitive stress injuries. While there were a lot of opportunities to move up in the company, it typically seemed like good candidates were passed up for non-merit related issues, length of time with the company never seemed to play any part in decision making. While you do get insurance immediately, (at least when I started in 2016) the plans were expensive and didn't cover much. Turn over was very high throughout the company (hence a lot of opportunities), mostly due to people quitting when they realized it wasn't worth the money. Complaints to HR typically went unresolved and usually ignored. This place had a lot of opportunity to be a great place to work and I hope they've turned it around since I left. They had a lot of great talent working in the studio, and I hope they found a way to retain it, but surely isn't career material for 90% of those who walk through their doors.

Explore other reviews about The RealReal

5.0
May 8, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Overall, the receiving team is very sweet and engaging. They try to help you when you need it or ask for it.

Cons

When you don't reach your goal, they do get on you/

2.0
Jun 13, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Pay and commission can be good, but the structure is unnecessarily convoluted and not as generous as it seems, and you will have no work/life balance if you want to actually make consistently high commission. If you have a true passion for luxury and fashion, you do get a lot of opportunities to handle and interact with special/rare items, and depending on store location you can meet a lot of interesting industry people and celebrities, especially during Fashion Weeks

Cons

Poor and unsupportive management with extremely unrealistic demands and expectations; you will get virtually no training, but are immediately expected to know how to do everything. The overall company culture is just unpleasant and very cliquey, and there's constant employee turnover. The online customer service system is terrible, so you will frequently have to handle customer issues that have nothing to do with you/your sales.

1
See reviews by: Helpful|Rating|Date|All