Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Sales Representative Reviews

Pros

They hire great people. They do things with good intentions but miss the big picture at times.

Cons

They make too many changes and don't listen to people on certain product concerns.

Pros

Great employees for the most part

Cons

Limited career growth over time

Pros

Loved the people I worked side by side with

Cons

Upper Management out of touch

Pros

Flexibility, company vehicle, home office, nice benefits

Cons

Top heavy management, constant fear of job loss, constant reorganization.

Pros

HMH has great content and passionate employees that truly believe in what they do. The products and legacy are valuable.

Cons

The company is like a lumbering dinosaur that can't keep up with progress. A large percentage of the time I was there, we didn't have something as simple as a working website. When we did, it was difficult to navigate and missing lots of key information. The company is reactive when it comes to technology at a time when it is vital to be proactive. Even simple internal tasks were mired in unnecessary processes. HMH is stuck in the past and old ways of doing business, and lacks focus, direction, and forward thinking leadership. Technology is forcing publishing to become a quickly changing industry, and they need to be able to keep up with the change if they expect to survive for the remainder of the 21st century.

Pros

company car for field sales reps make your own schedule and work from home if you are a field sales rep...but your life is not your own so it really doesn't matter that you get to work from home

Cons

too many to list, but here goes middle and upper management bring in their buddies from other publishers the school division is treated like royalty while the supplemental division gets treated terribly constant "dumping" of materials into the book bag of the supplemental division (which is know called Specialized Curriculum Division...another waste of time, money and resources getting everything reprinted The two divisions are in direct competition with one another URGENT calls and e-mails from management asking "what's the biggest thing you have that can close this week?" The company is only beholden to the greedy shareholders who just want MORE MORE MORE Colleagues are back stabbers....tech support is in India and impossible to understand...no one seems to have any answers, they just "pass the buck" all employees are tense, stressed out and nervous that they will be next on the chopping block

Pros

Wonderful, creative co-workers who take pride in their work and truly believe in helping Students and teachers- Lots of excellent educational materials, but we have many weak spots as well- Fun, rewarding job when you are actually given time to do it and not stuck creating endless reports, SFDC updates & taking endless online courses - The company also offers good benefits, generous vacation time, paid volunteer time - I think the CEO has a promising vision, but I don't know that she has the right people assisting her with that vision-Sometimes I also wonder if she just talks a good game as she clearly isn't seeing what is going on in the trenches- I love working with my customers and co-workers, but can't take much more of the stress and abuse by upper management-

Cons

Bloated management and upper management- not sure what most of the VP's and executives do- lots of titles with no apparent substance- Even though we have a female CEO, the old boys network is alive and well at HMH- Lots of talk about "living our values" but seems to be more of a PR stunt- Territories are too small (too many reps) and quotas ( and territories) are not equitably distributed - It's feast or famine in the field- Stress and pressure is never ending and upper management doesn't want to listen to the facts-Pressure is more intense since company went public last year- Upper management shows no respect for reps- If you have 1 bad year (out of many good years) there is no mercy- No one cares about your history or the truth about why the territory isn't producing- Lots of old copyrights which make it difficult for us to compete- Technology could be a lot more seamless at elementary level - Company just keeps putting bandaids on elementary technology - Start from scratch and stop throwing away money on a system that is over 15 years old - Morale is low and the company has lost many good people in recent years-

Pros

Flexibility, good work / life balance,

Cons

poor benefits, no raises, low pay and stinky commission plan

Pros

best products, designers, engineers and inside sales team in the K-12 market.

Cons

Abusive, overlyl manager who has yelled at employees. Unclear direction and lack of preparation. Lack of communication between outside sales and inside sales. Too much busy work that does not result in sales. Management does not accurately report sales. Inside sales team is demoralized and terrified of manager.