Cengage Doesn't Understand K-12 Publishing
Pros
The company offers average compensation. It gives manages a degree of latitude in finding opportunities for professional development for their employees. My colleagues are a great group of smart, creative people who know the industry and their content areas like the back of their hand. The new Chicago office offers a clean, modern space with plenty of conference rooms and great views of the city, as long as you can tolerate the drawbacks of an open floor plan: excessive noise, resistance to personalization, and lack of any semblance of privacy.
Cons
Life was so much better before Cengage. The namby-pamby corporate "culture" is numbing, to say the least. During the several years Cengage has owned National Geographic School Publishing, I have worked with only one Cengage-sourced manager (who has since left the company) who was effective and produced tangible outcomes instead of empty promises. Understandably, Cengage is focused on higher ed because that represents approximately 90 percent of its revenue, yet the company's leaders have stubbornly resisted providing for our business needs so that we can continue being fully successful. (So WHY did they buy us? Oh, right, so they could slap the golden rectangle on more of their crappy products.) Furthermore our catalog-committed marketing group is ineffective at collaborating with product development in any meaningful way.