Unstable, uncertain - Product Manager Cengage Employee Review

3.0
Mar 12, 2013
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

The people here are great. Hard working, dedicated and trying to do the best job possible. The work/ life balance is favorable and I've generally found it easy to move around between positions. The people with whom I directly work feel strongly about the value of working on educational materials despite the challenges of our industry.

Cons

This industry and this company are undergoing major transitions. We have weathered several large departmental reorganizations with more to come. It's unsettling and demotivating. Despite the company's talk about focusing on digital, from a product development standpoint that's proving to be easier said than done when digital products take weeks and weeks to produce, so there's little speed to market. it's also hard to trust upper managers who either aren't transparent or don't know what they're going to do two months out so give no notice regarding strategic changes. Much comes across as though it's done on a whim with little planning or forethought.

Explore other reviews about Cengage

5.0
Mar 28, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Total rewards, time off, great people and culture

Cons

Lots of changes and uncertainty at times

1.0
Jul 13, 2026
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

The individuals below the management level are good people, with some good people at management but C-Suite is horrible.

Cons

C-Suite hides their plans under corporate speak. Cengage was a family owned private company and they sold and ever since then has had, debt, schemes to shuffle and restructure debt while implementing RIFs after RIFs after RIFs...never ending and amazingly has been in increased this last year. From their actions it's outsource as much as you can of company operations and squeeze value from Intellectual Property. Look how many times they've renamed themselves. They had a CTO join for about a month or two until she realized it was a role with no team, no authority and left. The CEO is amazing at spin, you hear "great, great, great" corporate speak as the reality on the ground is "this failed, that failed..what!? they're gone!...what they moved that department offshore!...what!? that department is now a vendor relationship...oh we're not DEI focused because the wind changed". The trend is contraction not expansion, no ground breaking innovation. My jaded view from college on expensive books has only grew since I see how the sausage is made.

3
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