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    Cosmopolitan Magazine Reviews

    Updated June 1, 2018
    33 reviews

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    3.2
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    2 Ratings

    33 Employee Reviews

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    Pros

    • "You learn a lot about the industry very quickly because you have to to survive" (in 6 reviews)

    • "Upscale excecutions, fast pace work environment, and fashion forward company" (in 4 reviews)

    Cons

    • "Long hours, but other than that not a lot of cons for me" (in 11 reviews)

    • "Un-organized, too many interns, late long hours, barely any breaks, lots of runs, not being able to sit in on meetings or know anything about business" (in 2 reviews)

    More Pros and Cons

    1. "Social Editor"

      StarStarStarStarStar
      • Work/Life Balance
      • Culture & Values
      • Career Opportunities
      • Comp & Benefits
      • Senior Management
      Current Employee - Anonymous Employee
      Current Employee - Anonymous Employee

      I have been working at Cosmopolitan Magazine full-time

      Pros

      Loved the team, environment, perks, pay.

      Cons

      no cons, love this job

    2. "Not empowering for women"

      StarStarStarStarStar
      • Work/Life Balance
      • Culture & Values
      • Career Opportunities
      • Comp & Benefits
      • Senior Management
      Former Employee - Anonymous Employee
      Former Employee - Anonymous Employee
      Doesn't Recommend
      Neutral Outlook

      I worked at Cosmopolitan Magazine full-time

      Pros

      Fun place to work. Interns are invited to happy hours and events. At least for the featured department, my supervisor always encouraged me to leave work by 6 and was never contacted during school time, nights or weekends. A good place to work if you can while you're in school so you can get the experience and name on your resume. Editors can sometimes be funny and will talk about anything since the magazine is about women.

      Cons

      The only intern in my team who sucked up to the higher ups got promoted. It is really hard to stand out as some interns will jump at the chance to do the cool work and will pass on the boring stuff, like mailing magazines or transribing to the ones who just want to get work done. It's all a popularity contest.

      The women claim to be all about female empowerment, but you can't take the high school mean girl out of the editor pretending to be a feminist. They will literally talk about how funny it is to "Drag" their work enemies and laugh about how "ugly" someone's wedding was on Instagram during pitch meetings. Then they will turn around and talk about "Women who support other women" and about how positivity is the new trend. There is very big turn around, so if you end up with an amazing team, it will likely break apart in a year or two as other go on to other work.

      Advice to Management

      Focus more on adding more positions in the magazine rather than making stupid reality shows.

    3. "Work here, but be prepared for the abuse."

      StarStarStarStarStar
      • Work/Life Balance
      • Culture & Values
      • Career Opportunities
      • Comp & Benefits
      • Senior Management
      Former Employee - Designer in New York, NY
      Former Employee - Designer in New York, NY
      Doesn't Recommend
      Positive Outlook

      I worked at Cosmopolitan Magazine full-time (Less than a year)

      Pros

      They do have an incredible creative cultivation. Their high bar for design as an ambitious brand is a great place for young designers to learn how to create great things under pressure.

      Raises the level of nonsense you are able to deal with in an office environment. If you read cosmo and fit into that culture, you will most likely enjoy your time working there. It is a great place for a very specific culture of people to thrive.

      Cons

      Abusive supervisors (gas-lighting, verbally abusive, bullying, general cattiness). Managers are hired internally based on how good they are at ingratiating themselves to the Chief Editor and not based on actual experience managing a team or dealing with the skill-sets of said team. There is absolutely no director of operations so almost all of the computers are at least 1-2 years out dated, which can have a huge effect on employees who have to work with incredible speed.

      Advice to Management

      Hire a director of operations, or at least someone to manage your tech equipment. Expecting designers to work off their personal laptops/un-updated equipment for more than a month is not only a ridiculous expectation of a multi-national publication, but a security risk to the company that it is owned by.

      Get rid of the abusive supervisors who use their subordinates as a receptacle for their frustration. To work somewhere where managers feel they can scream at designers because of the low bandwidth and un-updated computers is not only unacceptable, but will permanently affect the reputation of your organization when employees ultimately leave and re-enter the freelance community. New York is a small city.

    4. "A Cog in the Wheel"

      StarStarStarStarStar
      • Work/Life Balance
      • Culture & Values
      • Career Opportunities
      • Comp & Benefits
      • Senior Management
      Former Employee - Art Director in New York, NY
      Former Employee - Art Director in New York, NY
      Doesn't Recommend
      Neutral Outlook

      I worked at Cosmopolitan Magazine full-time (More than 8 years)

      Pros

      If you get a National title to work with, the talent level is top notch

      Cons

      Don't expect too much appreciation from corporate for your efforts.

    5. "Welcoming Environment"

      StarStarStarStarStar
      Former Employee - Anonymous Employee
      Former Employee - Anonymous Employee

      Pros

      Really great group of women and men who are more than willing to impart knowledge, fast-paced environment

      Cons

      A lot of changes were happening in upper management during my time

    6. Helpful (1)

      "Like the Devil Wears Prada without any of the glamour"

      StarStarStarStarStar
      Former Employee - Anonymous Employee
      Former Employee - Anonymous Employee

      Pros

      You learn a lot about the industry very quickly because you have to to survive. You get to see the inside workings of how a magazine is run.

      Cons

      If you are in a lower level position you are treated terribly. No one acknowledges your work and you will always be the first in last out. 75 hour work weeks are normal. You will be told to just figure it out, and have impossible expectations to meet.

      Advice to Management

      Acknowledge the good things people are doing, and make sure the work load is being distributed appropriately.

    7. "Hearst is an incredible parent company"

      StarStarStarStarStar
      • Work/Life Balance
      • Culture & Values
      • Career Opportunities
      • Comp & Benefits
      • Senior Management
      Current Employee - Anonymous Employee
      Current Employee - Anonymous Employee

      I have been working at Cosmopolitan Magazine full-time

      Pros

      It's an incredible collection of talented, smart women.

      Cons

      As soon as traffic dropped (through no fault of anyone's), it became a very difficult place to work.

    8. "fashion intern"

      StarStarStarStarStar
      Former Employee - Anonymous Employee
      Former Employee - Anonymous Employee

      Pros

      -great experience
      -friendly people
      -let you work on set

      Cons

      -long hours
      -lots of runs
      -some times you aren't reimbursed owed transportation costs

    9. "Intern"

      StarStarStarStarStar
      • Work/Life Balance
      • Culture & Values
      • Career Opportunities
      • Comp & Benefits
      • Senior Management
      Former Employee - Anonymous Employee
      Former Employee - Anonymous Employee
      Doesn't Recommend
      Negative Outlook
      Approves of CEO

      Pros

      Flexible hours with school, friendly people and gorgeous, girly space downtown Manhattan.

      Cons

      Was pretty much assigned to doing errands, make banners, and simple graphics for instagram. But seeing how I was an unpaid design intern, I wasn't required much to do.

      Advice to Management

      Assign more hands on tasks to your interns instead of the leftovers. Interning is about a learning experience, not doing scraps.

    10. "Beauty Intern"

      StarStarStarStarStar
      • Work/Life Balance
      • Culture & Values
      • Career Opportunities
      • Comp & Benefits
      • Senior Management
      Current Employee - Anonymous Employee
      Current Employee - Anonymous Employee
      Recommends
      Neutral Outlook

      Pros

      The company culture is amazing. Everyone is so nice, and there are always different fun things going on in the office.

      Cons

      Sometimes as an intern, there aren't a ton of tasks to do, so learning to fill your free time is necessary.

    Showing 33 of 59 reviews
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