Run, Run FAST! - Sales Representative Cengage Employee Review

1.0
Mar 5, 2013
Recommend
Business Outlook

Pros

When the company was Thomson, it was wonderful! The management cared about their employees and worked with them. When APAX bought Thomson and spent millions to change name (as ridiculous as it is!) , it all started to go downhill...

Cons

Several things: 1. I was an overachieving sales rep and i got laid off with about 200 other employees, with ZERO warning. IN FACT, they told the people who got to keep their jobs BEFORE the ones let go. WHO DOES THAT? You don't think the close knit group of reps are going to talk. You are sorely mistaken. Most of those people were successful and the new upper management thought it would be a better idea to keep the rookies with zero publishing or Cengage experience. 2. They gave the people they "allowed" to keep their jobs HUGE raises and promise of large commission. 3. When laid off, zero explanation of why or how the decisions were made. All 200 of these people are out there trying to explain this to new employers and their only response is "you must've been a under performing rep, because they don't just let GOOD reps go." I can assure you they do! I was well over the mid-year goal and I still got laid off. 4. Read about the restructure Cengage is trying to do. Again, big, BIG trouble for this company. 5. 15-20% price increases within 60 days. Try to explain that to a prof and bookstore without management backing you up, other than to say "prices have increased..." 6. You are a competitor far behind Pearson and don't think you aren't. They have superior products, services, Reps and Marketing/Editorial. They are definitely the cream of the crop.

Explore other reviews about Cengage

5.0
Mar 28, 2026
Recommend
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Pros

Total rewards, time off, great people and culture

Cons

Lots of changes and uncertainty at times

3.0
Jun 4, 2026
Recommend
Business Outlook

Pros

Company has some interesting approaches to the market and in the past they seemed value employees. There are some good employees there and there was, in the past, visionary leadership, but the people with the vision and leadership skills left the company a few years ago.

Cons

The company actively de-values employees. They had a project they called "Project Horizon" where they told all employees they needed to cut costs, so the company was going to have multiple layoffs over 3-5 years - but nobody was allowed to know when, where, or why - - just one day large swaths of people would be gone. That hung over everyone's heads - for years, and is indicative of how Cengage values employees - it doesn't. Everything is about trying to secure new funding and prepare for an IPO, so they stopped investing significantly in the products about 3 years ago and that's about when they stopped acting like they cared about employee wellness as well.

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