Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Reviews

Pros

Lots of great engineers (full time and contractor), and in general very friendly atmosphere Span of knowledge across teams with a range of experience levels Great location (Dublin city centre) Good work-life balance Clued in managers

Cons

The usual corporate red tape and box checking in some areas, although this is minimal and standard

Pros

- Unbeatable work-life balance; flexible hours, working from home is available (albeit see advice to management below), summer hours, working late is extremely rare. Infinitely better than previous roles I've had. - Positive workplace atmosphere: people are friendly, helpful, and relaxed - Great team dynamics: on the teams I've been on, the collaborative spirit makes problem-solving a blast - Interesting... technology and industry: Working with the ReactJS framework in the edtech space is challenging and educational (pun not intended) - Office is handily located in city centre with great transport options (by Dublin standards)

Cons

- Attempts to harmonize processes and technologies across all engineering teams cause needless friction for questionable gain - Unnecessary meetings...probably universal to all companies

Advice to Management

- Contractors are people too - Working from home is a brilliant perk that costs the company practically nothing. Stop trying to chip away at it.

Pros

Great people, working on leading technology solutions for the education sector. Great work-life balance, and an employee-first organisation which prioritises a positive, inclusive culture. I have worked here for 10 years and have seen the company transform over those years, improving all the time. Agile work practices, led from the Dublin site, are well embedded in our teams.

Cons

Although we are focused on building an enterprise-standard education platform, we have a legacy of older tech and bad practices which still impacts some aspects of work. Each year sees continuous improvement & innovation, however.

Advice to Management

CEO is very focused on technology roadmap, clued in to Agile practice. Good leadership - need to keep going on current development track, and accelerate the move away from legacy products.

Pros

Great work/life balance. Flexible work from home policy. Incredible group of people working with each to deliver quality products.

Cons

Company is not well known in Ireland, specially from a Tech point of view.

Advice to Management

The change of strategy (new management) has caused a little of missteps but as time passes goals are getting clearer motivating all the Engineering team to deliver exceptional products.

Pros

Its all about the kids, 40 million of them and counting use the e-learning platform.

Cons

Its just so frustrating to work there. Majority of staff are legacy print people who dont get the e-learning business - which pays the bills

Advice to Management

Split the company, an e-learning company doesn't print adult fiction

Pros

Dublin based engineering team are very talented, collaborative and forward looking. It's a great team to be part of as there are lots of opportunities to learn and to share your knowledge and work to build communities too. Dublin office location is super too.

Cons

Need more great people! And more teams to help deliver on the really meaty roadmap and mission.

Pros

HMH has an ever evolving culture inline with industry best practises. There is an extremely talented pool of individuals at HMH who strive everyday to make great products to improve the lives of over 50 millions users.

Cons

The broad technical capabilities on show in HMH is not widely known across the tech sector in Dublin which sometimes leads to a slow ramp up in hiring when needed.

Advice to Management

Keep doing what your doing. There has been a shift in strategy of late which has energised the wider Engineering organisation and will facilitate growth in the organisation as a whole.

Pros

Friendly supportive environment with a lot of friendly faces

Cons

No on site parking and no perks like free gym or free food that some of the bigger firms offer