Get the entry-level experience you want and then leave for something better. - Senior Editorial Assistant Cengage Employee Review

2.0
Jan 3, 2009
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Decent place to start in the publishing industry and will give you a good idea of how the industry works. Because turnover is high, Cengage is a good place to climb the ladder in terms of title and responsibility quite quickly.

Cons

While it is possible to get more experience at Cengage in a short amount of time than at smaller publishers, there tends to be a glass ceiling because promotions are based on space rather than performance. There are lots of older employees who will stay at the company until retirement, so even middle-range positions are difficult to come by. The salaries offered are very low. Also, much of the management is drawn from the sales force. While those managers can probably sell ice to an Eskimo, their project management skills are simply non-existent.

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3.0
Jun 4, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Company has some interesting approaches to the market and in the past they seemed value employees. There are some good employees there and there was, in the past, visionary leadership, but the people with the vision and leadership skills left the company a few years ago.

Cons

The company actively de-values employees. They had a project they called "Project Horizon" where they told all employees they needed to cut costs, so the company was going to have multiple layoffs over 3-5 years - but nobody was allowed to know when, where, or why - - just one day large swaths of people would be gone. That hung over everyone's heads - for years, and is indicative of how Cengage values employees - it doesn't. Everything is about trying to secure new funding and prepare for an IPO, so they stopped investing significantly in the products about 3 years ago and that's about when they stopped acting like they cared about employee wellness as well.

9
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