Pros
Newsela works hard to take care of employees in a lot of ways. With the pandemic, for example, they have done a great job of supporting work-life balance and encouraging us to take time as we need. They have provided job security in a very uncertain time, and I am extremely grateful. There are also a large number of great people working here. I love working with almost everyone - folks are mission-aligned, reflective, and most of all, care deeply about education. There's a strong culture of teamwork and building relationships. I think we hire great people and build great teams. I also believe our product is getting better all the time and we work hard to get it right.
Cons
Be warned: if you are a woman, especially one who is coming out of the classroom, be prepared to have your initial salary offer be low-balled. Bargain for what you're worth, because you'll be locked into a low salary and have no way to fight for more unless you get lucky and have a manger who will fight for you. For all the talk we put into equity, I see Newsela do very little to actually promote it other than in interpersonal ways. Management, after lots of pushes, is finally implementing professional development around being anti-racist. This is so important. However, executive leadership is doing very little in the way of actually supporting systems that would drive meaningful equity from the company level. Despite several requests from committees of employees, executive leadership continues to dodge these important changes like structured performance reviews and pay equity.