Pearson reviews

3.5

60% would recommend to a friend

(7,750 total reviews)
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Omar Abbosh

59% approve of CEO

49% positive business outlook

Pearson has an employee rating of 3.5 out of 5 stars, based on 7,750 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The Pearson employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Media & Communication industry (3.7 stars).

Reviews by job title

8K reviews
1.0
Jul 10, 2020
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

- You will learn a ton about new technologies - You will gain experience as a data engineer, ultimately making you a better data scientist

Cons

- The leadership is completely absent. There is no clear vision for this team, no direction from the highest levels. - The middle management has no idea what it is doing. They have promoted people to senior roles who can barely code. There's some serious nepotism going on. - There is no set criteria for promotions. It's essentially who your manager thinks they can trust. People on this team lack the basic skills to hold an advanced title and are constantly asking others for help. - Middle management does not listen to the expertise of their data scientists. They embark on projects where 80% of them say it won't work and then they will force them to work on it anyways. - Project management is inexperienced and ineffective, creating more work than necessary and treating data scientists as children. - Women and minorities are treated like tech support. - Leadership protects each other instead of their reports and will scapegoat and force people out to cover for their inability to deliver. - Harassment is not reprimanded unless it is escalated to HR (which even then it might not be). - Some take credit for the work of others and then blame others when something goes wrong. - There is a culture of gaslighting and making anyone who raises concerns feel like the problem instead of addressing the real issues. - The turn over rate in the past year is ~60-70%.

3.0
May 15, 2020

Great people, great company - not so great Executive and Sr. Leaderhsip

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

The people that are in the trenches doing the work delivering to Pearson's clients around the globe are some of the most passionated and committed professionals I have ever worked with. There are some exceptionally bright minds at play at Pearson. Those that are creating the next generation of learning materials, platforms and technologies. They are what makes Pearson an amazing company. The flexibility of schedule is great and this was especially important to our family given the need to be able to shuttle kids to and from school and school events. Healthcare benefits are the best that I have ever had in a corporate setting. Vacations is also very solid, however, like most people - you have to make the time to take the vacation otherwise it is moot. Discounts on products for those that have college age kids.

Cons

The "C-Suite" will be the ruin of this company. Within a years time the President of North America was fired. The CEO is "retiring" at the end of 2021, and the CFO "resigned" at the end of 2019. Troubling trend - but better path for Pearson. Other C'Suite people need to "retire" or exit. The company manages it operational expenditure failures by reducing staff - those that are doing the work, yet there are Sr. Leaders that are given the money to hire super expensive resources at VP level creating more work with less bodies doing work and more floating heads that create no value. During cost cutting times executives, the board of directors, and other senior leaders were directing "no travel" restrictions - yet they were not abiding by their own edicts. No investment in line level employees. VP and director level employees were offered development opportunity and learning inititatives - yet every time I asked my manager for funding to attend seminars, learning conferences, or paid for online content - I was denied and ended up paying for these out of my own pocket. Advancement opportunities are rarely given and seems the really good talent leaves Pearson in order to advance their careers. Promises of promotions are made - yet never fulfilled stating "no headcount' of "budget" for promotions. Compensation is mediocre compared to what other companies are offering.

2.0
Apr 13, 2020
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Good mission, easy to get behind creating a world where people are always learning.

Cons

No matter how successful your business unit is, you will always be dragging around a large publishing company like a ball and chain. This means that even if you meet or exceed performance goals, you are unlikely to be compensated accordingly. Compensation is low compared to other ed-tech companies. You will also be forced to deal with constant cost cutting measures that take priority over the work you are delivering to end users resulting in overall disappointing quality - which will ultimately be the downfall of the organization.

Viewing 244 - 246 of 7,750 Reviews

Glassdoor has 9,542 Pearson reviews submitted anonymously by Pearson employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if Pearson is right for you.