If you want to work in the publishing industry, Cengage is not a bad choice. - Executive Sales Representative Cengage Employee Review

3.0
29 Jan 2012
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

If you have decided to make the publishing industry your career, Cengage is a good choice for a company. I believe they treat their people better and with more respect than the other big publishers and have the resources that smaller publishers don't have. Their salary and compensation package is comparable and generally speaking, their managers are more people oriented than those at other publishers, although they have been trying to mirror Pearson more lately and therefore, have hired Pearson trained management, which will certainly have an influence on how employees are treated. There are incredible people who work at Cengage and the company is very supportive of outside activities such as the Rise and Shine charity event at the NSM. It is incredible to see so much support for something that truly changes peoples lives for the better.

Cons

The industry is in transition now and I see very little from upper management to address the drastic measures needed to remain competitive in the marketplace. Upper management needs to think outside of the box more than trying to copy Pearson. Management has no idea of the amount of time that is wasted daily due to the numerous inefficiencies of such a large bureauracy and reps are just expected to give up their evenings to overcome these inefficiencies. Wouldn't it make more sense to correct them? I don't believe channels are open for communication to flow up the chain so nothing ever improves more than bandage fixes.

Explore other reviews about Cengage

3.0
4 Jun 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Company has some interesting approaches to the market and in the past they seemed value employees. There are some good employees there and there was, in the past, visionary leadership, but the people with the vision and leadership skills left the company a few years ago.

Cons

The company actively de-values employees. They had a project they called "Project Horizon" where they told all employees they needed to cut costs, so the company was going to have multiple layoffs over 3-5 years - but nobody was allowed to know when, where, or why - - just one day large swaths of people would be gone. That hung over everyone's heads - for years, and is indicative of how Cengage values employees - it doesn't. Everything is about trying to secure new funding and prepare for an IPO, so they stopped investing significantly in the products about 3 years ago and that's about when they stopped acting like they cared about employee wellness as well.

10
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