Pearson Education Reviews

Former Employee – worked at Pearson Education as a contractor for more than 3 years

Pros – Friendly and open to out of the box thinking for design. Everything in one building in the suburbs.

Cons – Not particularly generous with credit on creative concepts.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Pearson Education full-time for more than 8 years

Pros – Pearson is dedicated to education and is an innovator in the industry

Cons – With size comes delay, there are processes and procedures that take too long

Advice to Senior Management – Find ways to improve the financial aspects of sales management

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

Current Employee – been working at Pearson Education full-time for more than a year

Pros – Great Benifits and really want to work with employees. Attempt to provide the best for the employee.

Cons – Currently some reconstruction going on. This has created some confusion. A lot of outdated processes, and lack of communication in certain areas. Closed off feeling from department to department.

Advice to Senior Management – Continue to work with the employees and also to find a stable goal and ride it out.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at Pearson Education as an intern

Pros – Flexible internship and a great team.

Cons – Distribution of work was uneven throughout the year.

Current Employee – been working at Pearson Education full-time for more than 10 years

Pros – Big company, big name, looks great on your CV. Great salaries, benefits, and bonuses, especially at the corporate level.

Before 2007, I had a great experience at Pearson. My bosses were great. They gave me autonomy because they trusted in their own decision to hire me and therefore didn't feel the need to micromanage me. I didn't disappoint them. I innovated my brains out for them. And, I was well rewarded for it. Not just rewards of "a good bonus", but with credit given where credit was due, a heartfelt thanks and appreciation for a job well done. It was great, and I felt motivated to do more and do better!

Cons – Company reputation is worsening, and there are no significant advancement opportunities for technical people. Advancement is only for "talkers" not "doers". There actually is a technical management pathway for career advancement at Pearson. It started in 2007. It's documented, even. But, HR pretends it doesn't exist when you ask about it. Most of upper management has no clue at all about available technical advancement pathways, so you won't either.

If you have a complaint about upper management, as legitimate as it may be, HR will not move heaven and earth to resolve it. They'll drag their feet tremendously. If you're in an HR-mediated interview with your boss over a conflict, HR will sit silently and watch your boss walk all over you and then recommend professional development training. For you. Not for your boss. Because you are the underling, so obviously it's you that has the problem.

Also, some upper management types like to steal your ideas and pretend they came up with them, rather than give you the reins and let you drive the bandwagon. Not good for career development.

In 2007, the company restructured itself. People were left in the dark about what was going to happen as the Harvard-type consultants and the shiny new MBA grads swept in and had closed-door meetings with the top brass about what to do next. As a result, a lot of bad decisions were made and resources were inefficiently allocated. The culture of open-door management and respect went out the window at that point and people were shuffled around in the organizations and treated like numbers. It was like one big game of corporate Sudoku, where the math was right, but, stepping back, the whole thing looked just random and scattered.

Advice to Senior Management – On the business level, focus on selling learning, not on selling metrics. Metrics can serve as evidence of learning...sometimes...but metrics are not learning. "Always Learning" is your product. Innovate on that. Don't be afraid to look toward disruptive innovation, even if it means your "bread and butter" customers are not the focus of that innovation.

On the people management level, get back to the basics. People below you are not peons. Don't talk down to them. Don't throw chairs in conference rooms and yell at them. Don't interrupt them on conference calls and berate them because you think their ideas stink. Don't scapegoat them to save your own face when your management style was what set them up for failure. These folks are your co-workers and your colleagues first and foremost. If you don't think they're up to snuff, that's your fault for selecting them to be your employee over someone else who was up to snuff. It's also your fault for refusing to communicate their shortcomings in a timely and constructive way. It's not their fault if they can't read your mind.

Also, The Golden Rule is not rescinded the day you get your Golden Promotion. Treat your subordinates with respect and dignity, make them part of your team, and you'll get awesome productivity and innovation from them. Steal their ideas and make believe they're yours so you can get all the glory and you'll reap passive aggressive behavior from everyone below you. Most will quit unexpectedly, leaving you high and dry.

In short, quit being like the Pointy Haired Boss or The C.E.O. characters in Dilbert cartoon strips that your employees are passing around. Do that, and they'll stop passing those cartoons around.

Be human. Be humble. Be approachable. Really. You're not as important as you think you are. Not in the grand scheme of it all, anyway.

(I wish I could rate Marjorie Scardino, whom I'd give a big hug and a huge "Thumbs Up" because she was really great. I have no opinion about John Fallon, yet.)

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

Current Employee – been working at Pearson Education full-time for more than 7 years

Pros – Great people to work with. Opportunity to travel - if you have regional or global role.

Cons – Very, very poor inter-company cooperation and communications. Politics is a killer - everyone is out for their little corner and will back stab, cheat and lie to get their way. Leadership is in chaos and so front line troops suffer from poorly planned and/or communicated strategies.

Advice to Senior Management – Correct internal issues before making more acquisitions. Fix legal department - they are a bottleneck! Teach your team in US that there is a whole world outside their boarders - for international business, support out of US stinks!

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Pearson Education full-time for more than a year

Pros – - Opportunities for a career...if you are interested in sales or don't care about significant salary advancement.
- Generally lax and low stress work environment, depending on your position and department. Mine has not been.
- Great benefits.

Cons – - The salary is pathetic - it is not competitive at all and it is not negotiable. This is frustrating, especially given the amount of responsibility that you can end up with (for example, my department started with 3 assistants. Two of them left but were never replaced so now I'm doing the work of all 3 but am actually making less than what I was making when I started due to the 2013 tax increases).

- No real job description - when I interviewed for and received the position, there was a clear job description outlining the position and what is expected of you. However, soon after starting, that was totally thrown out the window. I have actually been told be a superior that "your job is to do whatever I tell you to do". Usually not irregular or even something worth complaining about but given the low salary, lack of opportunities for advancement and the absence of overtime, it can become extremely frustrating and make you feel like a glorified intern.

- State of the company does not bode well for career opportunities - when I first started here, everyone made it seem like this was a career job, one that would lead to great opportunities within the company and ensure that I would be with Pearson for a very long time. But things have changed. The amount of open and available positions have decreased significantly and the CEO started talking layoffs at the latest state of the company meeting. Unless I decide to become a sales rep and move to the middle of nowhere, I'm practically stuck. Either that or I can hope for a semi-lateral move to another department that would increase my salary by a whole 2k a year. All the while, the higher ups are having meetings at the Bellagio in Las Vegas, or having corporate retreats in Bermuda. Not to mention those two assistant positions they never filled (why hire two new people when you can sucker one assistant to do the job of 3 for the price one 1?). Something doesn't add up.

Advice to Senior Management – A COMPETITIVE SALARY IS A MUST! Given how expensive the cost of living is in this area and how taxing the commute can be to get up here (I currently drive 42 miles each way every day), there is no reason why the salary is barely 30k. Sadly, it seems like the company is taking advantage of the down economy, sticking to the attitude that "well, you're lucky to even HAVE a job".

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

Former Employee – worked at Pearson Education full-time for more than 8 years

Pros – Nice work environment at Harlow, mediocre at 80 Strand, poor at 190 High Holborn
Outstanding benefits, health insurance, contributory pension scheme, sharesave scheme, gym membership - you do pay for some of these but the tax is offset.
Death in service benefit is immense.
Fantastic people.
Management tends to be flexible and fair.
Good HR dept.
Internal communications and personal development reviews are mostly effective.

Cons – Can be political.
Blaggers seem to go far up into the upper echelons.
Often a poor cross-matrix integration - lots of re-inventing the wheel.
Little or no industry certification training.
Frequent acquisitions bring constant change and redundancies.
Matrix style operation reduces the ability to effect big change quickly.

Advice to Senior Management – Introduce formal certifications for staffers - ITIL, CIPD, SCRUM, MSCE etc.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

Former Employee – worked at Pearson Education full-time for more than 3 years

Pros – Strong company with plenty of resources
Good employees who know and understand publishing
Some nice facilities in the Harlow branch (café, gym, library) not amazing, but there.

Cons – Too many cooks. Decision making is very hard as there are too many people involved in the process.
Some members of management are just ingrained and there because they haven't left rather than due to merit.
There's a Pearson way of doing things which you need to learn should you come from another publisher. It takes a while.
There's a nasty uncurrent of office politics and plenty of things done behind closed doors.

Advice to Senior Management – Give the employees more autonomy. Don't promote people just because they've been there forever. Look at whether managers are actually any good at managing.

– I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

Current Employee – been working at Pearson Education full-time for less than a year

Pros – great people, great working conditions, fun place to work

Cons – i can't think of any at this time

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company