Depends What You're Looking for - Product Director Cengage Employee Review

* Very Nice People - In the many years I worked at Cengage, I can honestly say I did not work with a single jerk. And I worked with a lot of different teams. This is a place of cordial, easy to work with people. This company doesn't hire drama starters, and if they did, they wouldn't last long. Along the same lines, you'll rarely hear someone say here "that's not my job". People are generally as helpful as they can be. * Few Egos - Generally, this is the type of place that if you have an idea, share it. Like any big company, there's constraints, but if it's a good idea, people will listen and consider it. Leadership is very approachable. * Meaningful Work - Working in education provides a lot of opportunity to work on interesting, meaningful problems, to improve the lives of students and teachers. Most everyone at Cengage is passionate about the problem space, which makes work much more enjoyable. * Great Work/Life Balance - People here generally respect you. If you need to take care of something with your kids in the middle of the day, no one questions it, just do it, as long as you get your work done. * Internal Mobility - This company promotes a lot from within. There are a lot of managers who have been with the company 10+ years who aren't likely to leave, but when openings do occur, the opportunity is there for you, if you want to move up. * Reasonable Autonomy - Obviously depends on where in the company you sit, but generally, considering how large Cengage is, most decisions do not go through too many layers. * Decent CEO - The CEO has been at Cengage for a long time. He guided the company many years ago out of a difficult bankruptcy. Very intelligent leader who hosts weekly calls on a variety of topics to keep people informed. Like any CEO, there are obviously things he cannot and doesn't share, but I truly believe he tries to be as transparent as he reasonably can be. * Few Pivots - If you're coming from a company that seemingly changes direction every 6 months, you may find Cengage refreshing. This is not a company that chases after "the next shiny thing". * Good Will - When the company was concerned about revenue at the offset of the pandemic, they announced a short-term pay cut. When revenue exceeded expectations, they paid everyone back the lost wages. They didn't have to do that, and most companies wouldn't have. When they go through acquisitions, like any acquisition, some people are let go, but they do make an honest effort to retain people at the older company. Since getting a large investment from a PE firm in 2023, these types of things are now few and far between, but I do want to call them out