Simon & Schuster Reviews

Current Employee – been working at Simon & Schuster

Pros – Good benefits, decent amount of time off, pretty laid back atmosphere, free books, variety of people, fun location - Rockefeller Center

Cons – Easy to get stuck in a certain job/level, not a lot of promotion opportunities, more bureaucracy than necessary, heavy focus on taking credit for ideas rather than sharing them

Advice to Senior Management – Pay more attention to everyone's input, get rid of the overpaid execs who just attend meetings and take credit for their employees ideas

Former Employee – worked at Simon & Schuster

Pros – When i was here, i met a lot of people who had been with the company for years and had moved up quite a bit in the organizational chart. If you are interested in Publishing, this is without a doubt a good place to start.

Cons – The company is rather large and often times there is a glaring lack of communication. I guess this would be a good thing for those people who hate human contact.

Advice to Senior Management – There has to be some renewed emphasis on innovation. The company is too content with just seeing employees fulfill their duties, and not exceed the expectations.

Former Employee – worked at Simon & Schuster

Pros – Great people, extremely helpful in teaching and mentoring

Cons – Not many opportunities for job placement/advancement

Advice to Senior Management – Focus on advancing the people that deserve it

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Simon & Schuster

Pros – You'll sometimes have a flexible work schedule. There is usually a company Christmas party that is pretty nice. The Riverside, NJ location is not in the city.

Cons – Management promotes blatant favoritism, backstabbing, unfair promotions and clique-like behavior. There seemingly is no organizational skills displayed by management and there certainly is no accountability. Overall, the place is kind of like a sweat shop.

Advice to Senior Management – Be accountable, take responsibility, give complete details whenassigning work, inspire creativity and advancement for all employees equally and do not blatantly favor one employee or a group of employees over others.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Simon & Schuster

Pros – The books. If you like to read and are interested in how a publishing company works then that's the field for you. The benefits are good.

Cons – Books are a dying art. People don't read and publishing houses are slaves to the sales department so most of the books being put out are bad creatively. It's a industry that works the worker bees hard and pay them little. Most of the women are in the worker bee position and men are the VPs and Publishers. The room for growth is difficult. My boss once told me that this is an industry for trust fund babies- believe it.

Advice to Senior Management – Update the process. Publishing houses are archaic. Have a clear path for new employees who are looking to get into the industry. Pay your employees more, the current salary is laughable.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at Simon & Schuster

Pros – Fun industry, access to books, generally pleasant workplace

Cons – Compensation is poor. Management is attached to the status quo (vs. innovative and accepting of change)

Advice to Senior Management – Compensate and promote fairly: based on performance and skill instead of personal favorites. Communicate with your staff openly.

Current Employee – been working at Simon & Schuster full-time

Pros – S&S is an industry leader in publishing and has been making changes to stay at the forefront of the industry. It's a friendly, but very professional environment.

Cons – Publishing industry salaries in general are pretty low. There's not much that can be done about that. S&S is no exception.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Simon & Schuster

Pros – Encouraging management, takes efforts to keep up with technology and changes in industry

Cons – Little opportunity for promotion, initiatives from corporate feel unnecessary and forced

Current Employee – been working at Simon & Schuster

Pros – Lack of hierarchy
Respectful superiors
Friendly environment
Good books
Interesting people
Ability to take on new projects
Reasonably self-directed
Decent hours

Cons – Lack of advancement
Abysmal pay
Inconsistent rewards
Unrealistic expectations
Opaque management decisions
Corporate bureaucracy
Unfair distribution of responsibilities
Lack of mentorship and training

Advice to Senior Management – Make Simon & Schuster a place that rewards the long hours and intelligence of its employees rather than expecting a lot but drowning it in corporate bureacracy.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Simon & Schuster

Pros – Great atmosphere and everyone one is pretty laid.

Cons – Many cliques, promotions and raises are based on who you know. Very old staff here, so they are not use to change unless it is forced on them. Which is mostly through technology and not people.

Advice to Senior Management – Open to change and maybe your younger staff will stay. Also, this is not high school, cliques went out the door then. Raises and promotions should be based on performance, not who you are swamping life stories with.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend