Random House Reviews

Pros

There is a positive exchange of ideas between editors, sales, and creative teams. If you are interested in the book industry and being a part of where it's progressing to, very good learning experience working there.

Cons

It does take a long time to advance, a person can work there for years taking on additional responsibilities, but will not get promoted.

Advice to Senior Management

Rather than letting them go, invest in training the long-term employees you have so they can be up-to-date with the new technologies you're working with.

Pros

Was at RH over 6 years. Awesome place, friendly people, great comraderie. Excellent medical benefits, summer hours, week between Christmas and New Year's off, good vacation benefits, free books, meet famous authors, great team get togethers, fun and cool colleagues. I truly miss my time working there and considered it one of the best times in my professional life.

Cons

Low pay. Low starting salary and low increases, unless you got promoted. But a higher percentage on something so low is still low.

Shrinking industry. Constant layoffs. I left RH to move onto a new industry and for more pay.

Pros

Random House has prestigious publishing programs. Employees take pride in their work.

Cons

Minimal salary increases. Little room to advance.

Pros

You'll be working among the brightest of the brightest and enjoy the creative atmosphere and love everyone has for books and the written word. The benefits are amazing even with the loss of some due to the downturned economy.

Cons

As is true in most publishing houses these days, the hours are long and there's a changing, uncertain environment as the future of books and publishing turns more and more to digital publishing.

Advice to Senior Management

Allow employees to be able to take more ownership of projects and chart out clear career paths with noteworthy incentives.

Pros

-Excellent benefits, including ample vacation time
-Opportunities to advance

Cons

-Promotion and end of year raises can be modest.

Pros

Intelligent and respectful culture and environment; wonderful people; great books; terrific building, location and cafe; above average benefits; yoga classes on site (for those with time).

Cons

Not much opportunity for advancement, but that is true of most publishing houses.

Advice to Senior Management

Strive to be on the cutting edge of technology while also improving the quality of print.
Treat your employees well and they will return the favor.

Pros

Overall, they are a good company to work for. They are pretty flexible with your working hours and have great benefits.

Cons

I wish they compensated their employees better. Many employees recently lost office space and are now in very small cubicles.

Pros

Benefits (Heath/Medical, Dental, Eye); Atmosphere, Vacation Time Allotted (4-weeks a year to start; plus the the Christmastime to New Years off); 401-K match

Cons

Low pay compared to other Publishing Companies; Annual pay raise is usually low, and at a standard percentage across the departments; Room for advancement very limited; Bonus Plan not offered to ALL; even though work related responsibilities and goals are the same.

Advice to Senior Management

Listen to your employees

Pros

Competitive salaries. Excellent benefits package including: 401k (with a favorable matching contribution), a very generous vacation time allotment, paternity and maternity leaves, physical fitness allowance, etc.

Cons

Crowded and impersonal work areas, a general lack of effective and efficient communication between managers and their staff as well as between departments.

Advice to Senior Management

Innovation and risk seem to be dangerous words here. Rather than standing back and seeing where the chips fall on issues like Digital Rights Management, and an industry standard format for eBooks, I would encourage Random House to give support to the format that best suits their needs as a content provider.

Pros

Good work life balance.
Lots of time off with good benefits.
Friendly environment.
All the free books you can imagine.

Cons

Not a lot of job growth for many departments.
Low pay.
Communication is not good between upper management and employees.
Suggestions are not taken seriously.
Moral is low.