When Worlds Collide - Software Development Manager Cengage Employee Review

3.0
Nov 17, 2015
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Tech people are very sharp, product people are passionate about learning. They handled their bankruptcy well, and they have invested into restructuring their tech side. I think the CEO believes in the cause. They had massive layoffs and unfortunately, I think they had to. The old Cengage was old, fat, and complacent. The new Cengage is trying to be leaner and faster.

Cons

Product people don't understand the software world - many are still from the publishing days. Pay is very low for product / content developers. Tech communicates very poorly with Product people. Product people are very good in their areas - they have masters and Phd's in their subject area, but they have zero interest in software capabilities. They don't understand that last minute "tweaks" require full regression testing when a product is about to go live. This has bit them before. QA, with a few exceptions, is the worst I have ever worked with. Very junior people who have to be told what to do. Sometimes the company spend their money in strange ways. They pull out the stops for an offsite in Florida with huge parties, yet content developers in SF make about $50k a year in one of the most expensive cities in the country. They have a presence on the west coast but no serious software development there - that is only for Boston and Farmington hills because they know they cannot compete salary wise.

Explore other reviews about Cengage

5.0
Mar 28, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Total rewards, time off, great people and culture

Cons

Lots of changes and uncertainty at times

3.0
Jun 4, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
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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