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Penguin Random House

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Penguin Random House reviews

3.9

72% would recommend to a friend

(1,189 total reviews)
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Nihar Malaviya

81% approve of CEO

70% positive business outlook

Penguin Random House has an employee rating of 3.9 out of 5 stars, based on 1,189 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The Penguin Random House employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Mídia e comunicação industry (3.7 stars).

Reviews by job title

1K reviews
4.0
Oct 11, 2017

Great experience overall

Recommend
Business Outlook

Pros

Free books of all kinds, Meeting amazing people and authors! Great freedom to work on new/exciting projects

Cons

Workload for publicists is huge with big expectations and little support, salary not great overall, no compensation for working out of hours

3.0
Oct 11, 2017

HR and Tech drag back business development

Anonymous employee
Recommend
Business Outlook

Pros

It's a really vibrant, creative place to work. If you're able to socialise outside your own team, you will come across some of the most interesting and talented people out there. You get access to lots of free books and it's exciting to work for a company where every single person is so passionate about the product.

Cons

The support functions, mainly IT and HR, really let down the business. I've noticed that the company doesn't like to spend money on employees, whether that is purchasing tech equipment/software that's needed, or providing training. There are nearly no opportunities for learning and development, just a cycle of repeated soft skills courses that I don't think are particularly useful or inspiring. I came from a company that made significant investment in employee learning, and have found it really surprising how limited the opportunities are at PRH. Benefits are minimal unless you've been there since before the merger. If you come from any other company, I imagine it would feel like stepping 10 years back in time tech-wise - it's very dated and not mobile at all (most people work on desktop computers). Salaries are low, which some people say is to be expected in publishing, but I don't see why as it is a hugely profitable business like any other. There are huge discussions around diversity and inclusion - raising salaries is probably the most straightforward way to attract applicants that aren't from affluent backgrounds.

4.0
Oct 10, 2017
Recommend
Business Outlook

Pros

PRH has a strong employee benefits program and its employees enjoy the pluses that come with working at a major publishing house with a strong corporate system. Of all the major publishers, PRH seems best prepared to deal with the changes to the market.

Cons

Opaque promotion programs and scattered institutional goals across divisions, imprints, and departments makes for a chaotic prioritization.

Viewing 913 - 915 of 1,189 Reviews

Glassdoor has 1,552 Penguin Random House reviews submitted anonymously by Penguin Random House employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if Penguin Random House is right for you.