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Penguin Random House

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Great place to start a career but better to leave if you want growth - L&D Coordinator Penguin Random House Employee Review

4.0
19 Oct 2017
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

- excellent benefits - encouraging teams - one of the best corporate cultures, they really want to invest in your development - one of the best learning teams that tries their best to help everyone as much as possible - great place to learn a lot of on the job skills - even at entry level there are a lot of opportunities to pitch in creative ideas and challenge yourself. - you can easily be a big fish in a small pond and pick up a lot of stretch projects - Creative environment - constantly learning from others - people willing to work together - wonderful work life balance - Great place if you want to launch your career, leave for other opportunities to move up faster + better salary, then maybe be a boomerang and come back.

Cons

- they can be a little spiteful when you leave the company, I never got a proper exit interview and know other colleagues with the same problem - they take advantage of your time but do not recognize or hint upward mobility. I personally felt something extreme had to happen in order to move up. -salaries could be better..... - it is great place to grab a lot of experience and take it somewhere else unless you are die hard publishing. Otherwise you will be overqualified for your role especially when you are in a small team.

Explore other reviews about Penguin Random House

5.0
20 June 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

• Caring people. Psychological safety is emphasized by people at every level. I feel like leadership at each step of the reporting chain is very approachable and transparent. • Great work/life balance. • There is a lot of openness to trying new technologies or doing different things for such a large and established organization. There is very little "trend chasing," it's more like you're listened to. As the CEO started out as a technologist, he has a realistic view of what new tools (including, but not just, AI) can do for us. • Informal, especially for a company created by the merger of two nearly-100 year old publishing firms and was recently acquired by a nearly-200 year old company. • Company supports learning and development. • Free books! • I care greatly about the company's mission and it's clear how my work impacts the company's ability to execute on it. • Things often move slowly, which is both a pro and a con.

Cons

• Pay and insurance are very average, but I can live with that. This is a much bigger con for employees whose jobs require them to be on-site, especially in e.g. London and New York. • Said learning and development seem to have a ...deliberate pace. While this is fine and what I wanted, other tech people coming in from more "tech-y" organizations mightn't gel with it. • Things often move slowly, which is both a pro and a con.

5.0
20 May 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Great writing, Top tier production

Cons

The male director never asked me once how I was doing or offer any advice to calm my nerves (on my first production ever with them) which lead to a burdensome recording process.

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