I had a wild experience with this company. I applied for the role of senior content developer in January, 2023. Two weeks later I received an email from a recruiter with a word document containing three typical testing questions for the subject that I teach, asking me to film 3 10-minute videos answering these questions, in a creative and engaging fashion. The recruiter emphasized how time sensitive this task was. This is clearly a large amount work (especially when you already have a full-time job) - but I found the job/project interesting, so I completed it (was probably upwards of ~20 hours of work in a week stretch). Pearson requested that I upload the videos to youtube, which meant that I could tell when my videos had been watched. Approximately a week later, I noticed that my videos had been viewed, and a couple of hours later, I received an email from someone at Pearson asking to set up an interview. Again, the person emphasized how time sensitive and urgent this was. There were multiple red flags during this interview. I met with a member of the team that I would be working on. The first ten minutes consisted of him asking me incredibly generic questions that could have been answered by briefly looking at my resume (example: "do you have any teaching experience?"). He then spent the remainder of our time (scheduled for an hour, but lasted approximately 1 hour 45 minutes) going through what I can only describe as his team's origin story - where they are all from, how they work together, etc. He also repeatedly mispronounced my first name. The meeting concluded with him asking me to complete the next step, which consisted of filming 15 minutes worth of video. This time, I could pick the topic and teach it a "totally creative, novel way." Again, it was emphasized how urgent and time sensitive this was. I was feeling frustrated to have another task to complete, but I enjoyed filming the first round, so decided to continue despite some reservations. I submitted these videos approximately 1 week later (again, about 20 hours of work) and a few days later, noticed that someone viewed them on youtube, and a few hours after that, received another email from Pearson inviting me to the “third and final” round. This round consisted of filming 20 minutes of me teaching the entire chapter of a textbook, while also creating a worksheet for students. They also asked me to use their software to make it as "uniform" as possible. The email again stressed the time sensitivity. I should have quit here, but I had made it this far, so decided to push through. Oy, this was so much work, and also meant that I had to purchase items to use their software. All in all, this was probably 40 hours of work in the span of a week (again, in addition to a full-time job). I submitted it, and then.....nothing. No email response, and no watches of my videos. I was disappointed because I put so much work into this but it happens. After two weeks passed, I sent a quick email checking on the status (hoping that maybe they didn’t receive my initial email), and again, heard nothing. This should be the end, however, it gets worse. My final check-in email to Pearson occurred at the beginning of March, so at the beginning of March, I assumed I didn't get the job and needed to move on. In the middle of May (more than 2 months later), I finally received a form rejection email from them letting me know that they had reviewed my resume, and I was not qualified for the job. LOL, I thought, they couldn’t even send me a rejection email that accurately reflects my interview status. Out of curiosity, I checked youtube, and sure enough, someone had watched my videos in the middle of April. It made me feel better that at least my materials had been reviewed, but good lord, by that point in time, I had moved on. This is not over. Approximately one week after this form rejection email, I received another (frantic) email from an HR person at Pearson. This email informed me that the rejection email that I had previously received was in error, and that I was still being considered as a candidate, and they would give me an update ASAP. Again, I laughed at how disorganized this was, and ignored the email, because I was obviously no longer interested in this company or job. Another week went by, and I received yet another email from the same HR person, letting me know that the job was canceled, and they would not be hiring for the position at all. This person informed me that, should they decide to hire in the future, I would be shortlisted for the position. Again, I ignored the email, but it does not end here. Approximately 2 hours later, I received a personalized email from the person I originally interviewed with letting me know that they hired someone else for the position, they thought very highly of me, blah blah blah. That is the last I have heard from them (for now). I have reached glassdoor's word limit, please steer clear of this company.
