Pros
- Fantastic job experience right out of college if you're lucky enough to get an interview (I only did because I knew someone who knew someone). In managing editorial especially, you'll learn a lot about all aspects of book publishing. - Really nice people overall. I had especially good support from managers. - Free books! - You can network with other departments to snag freelance gigs. - Many prestigious authors have walked the halls of Simon & Schuster. It was thrilling being in the same space as them.
Cons
- All of these brilliant people were working together to produce incredible books by incredible authors, but they were making peanuts. It would have taken me years to get out of the 30k range, even with promotions. And this was before eBook production hit its stride. - Because of the extremely low pay, there was mostly one type of person hired: someone who had other sources of money to pay their New York rent. I knew absolutely no one but myself who had student loans to pay off. Hiring privileged, mostly white people from the east coast really narrows the perspectives and insights going into creating books, which is not a good thing. - No annual raises. I didn't blame this on my manager; I knew it was coming from the top, and I knew everyone suffered. - Surprisingly bad technology/equipment. You'd think the publisher that churns out Stephen King's novels could afford the latest version of Windows for all of its employees.