account executive

inside sales account executive

learning experience designer

content specialist

delivery manager

I am sad to be looking for a new job with a new company, but HMH is disappointing. All of the people I work with directly are wonderful, and until now I have felt very well-supported in all of my needs. However, as part of the transition from Scholastic to HMH, many employees have end dates. And employees with end dates throughout the company are treated as second class citizens who do not enjoy the benefits of regular full-time employees. I understand this as a company policy for regular project employees, but Scholastic might have a "Project employee" with them for ten years. 
HMH promised they would not follow this practice, but as a project employee I have not had an opportunity for a review, a raise, or a promotion in over a year and a half. When regular employees were reviewed in January, I was not. We are now being told when our contract is up, we will be extended, and maybe this summer we can become regular employees. At which point, we still can't negotiate or have a normal review- so I won't be eligible for any additional compensation until January. So, despite my changing role and additional responsibilities over the course of two years, I am not eligible for any additional compensation or benefits until I'm near the three year mark.
I would like to reiterate, most of what HMH does is very supportive. They allow people to work remotely to create a work life balance, and they don't ask people to stay late- it's just a cultural expectation from the highly motivated and competent people that they hire. Everyone is stellar and my direct management is incredibly thorough, and quick to answer questions or solve problems. It has been a great learning experience. I just can't afford to keep living at the same wage as expenses rise.

While the transition is something that is necessary- it does not seem to have a straight path or plan to reach its goal. It is a large company and will survive the transition, but round 1 got off to a rocky start. Tough to say who is responsible for the decision making, but names need to be kept as the future impacts will be monitored. Overall- the work/life balance is respected through out the company. In times of customer complaint, some folks are quick to blame and this mentality is tough as they transition to digital education where there are many hurdles in need of clearing. Overall, 90% of the folks are great people- but 90% of people in education are always in it for the right reasons! Personally, I struggled with the company move to focus on Post-Sales Revenue, rather thna pre-sales prevention- as the focus should be on the complete life-cycle of the customer. In the educational realm, it continues to surprise me when districts are considered consumers, rather than a partner to move forward with and provide a successful environment for the users! This entails the pre-sales conversation to be engaging and a priority so there are limited, if any, bad situations upon implementation in the post-sale realm to no less charge for.  I talk about a full life cycle, because- if done right- there is a full partnership and understanding of the district vision of technology in the classroom during pre-sales, that there are no surprises in post-sales situation- thus providing a smooth conversation into the next adoption!  If a district trusts and understands your implementation is complete and works- then they will continue to purchase more content regardless of the competition. Educational budgets are tight enough- and I would have preferred a focus on providing a working environment, not charging to fix environments.

I'm so sorry I took a job with this company. As a full-time salaried employee I am expected to work 60+ hours a week pretty much every week. There are a lot of contractors here, who don't have to work the overtime. That way management doesn't have to pay the contractors overtime pay. There is an atmosphere of fear, mistrust, and disdain amongst all employees towards management and execs. Company "reorganizes" every 6–9 months and there's always layoffs hanging over our heads. Working here means dealing with chaos and miscommunication on a daily basis. Software used to do my job is outdated, doesn't work much of the time, and very unwieldy. Everyone is micromanaged to the extreme. Employees are treated very poorly and management wonders why morale is so low! Spend a ridiculous amount of time filling out spreadsheets to gather metrics for everything we do. Management pushes and pushes employees to meet ridiculous deadlines and doesn't care about quality. We have to work with a lot of overseas vendors which gets very frustrating at times. Only 2 raises in the last 5 years, and that was only 2%. Constantly under the gun to cut costs while corporate execs spent thousands on a trip to the Kentucky Derby. We're talking about flying them out to Kentucky, hotels, meals, and an exclusive suite at the Derby. All on the company dime. For a company that just came out of bankruptcy that's not responsible spending.

Deadline driven, cubical infested, corporate publishing arena where six meetings a day is not uncommon, especially toward the end of a program, into reprints, and at the beginning of new assignments. Seemingly impenetrable staffing where contract employees come and go and it is nearly impossible for them to land any lasting or permanent position regardless of track record. The Editorial departments are always tightly-wound, but sharp, as friendly as you can be in that situation, and efficient as two sets of arms and hands. Other departments, not so much. Recently completed a contract in a newer department suffering from rather poor training, a consistant lack of follow-up, and overhead from a remote supervisor who in one breath allows for the learning curve, but showed no leniency in light of that same concavity. The most enjoyable part of the job was the fact that everyone else was on the same narrow edge of whether or not they would have their job tomorrow. That allowed for some humorous moments each day, especially when management would pay for a meal every so often to keep up moral after a wave of layoffs. The people themselves were the sugar that made the pill of working in a corporate publishing house easier to swallow. I learned that I should not rely on anyone's word and that personal loyalties, for the most part, end without notice, unprovoked. Much like certain positions. A keen lesson in obsolescence.

They pay far below industry standards. It wasn’t until I was laid off and looking for new jobs that I realized I should have been making at least 20k more than I did. The company is constantly having layoffs and going through “big changes” and honestly it’s because it’s always playing catch up because it’s a dinosaur. No one wants print textbooks anymore and they moved far too slow to have any good digital products, so by the time Covid hit, me and about %50 of my coworkers were laid off. Which was weird because when I started, I was led through a maze of mostly empty cubicles and told they just recently had a massive layoff. Job security this place does not offer. I always felt like I could be let go each quarter. You often have no work to do or are suddenly burdened with a huge project that has to be done IMMEDIATELY. The work hours were flexible and they finally let us wfh after Covid, but I don’t miss never feeling secure and never having much training or direction. You’re mostly thrown into projects with little or no instruction as to what to do or how to do it, and that’s kind of the culture there. They are constantly cycling through “learning architects” - hiring, laying off again, hiring, and laying off again. Overall: zero job security and terrible pay. 

Gone through some challenges, from being independent, to being part of a conglomerate to being owned by investment bankers, through reverse takeover, bankruptcy, an IPO and now facing challenges common to the industry. The new CEO looks very impressive and has extensive industry and turnaround chops, so work at this  company promising. Challenges include an industry that faces a customer base that wants content for free, large development costs, slow payback period and potential slowdown in government funding, coupled with a vision for Digital product that may not match customer base current needs.  Hardest part of the job is a culture that still focuses on heroic efforts rather than adequate staffing. Great peer group to work with. The company has made some positive moves in the last five years to move from a stodgy Boston publisher to one that has the ability to be a global presence in the education market.

HMH has had a lot of cultural changes over the last decade. It often feels like the leadership team "reinvents the wheel" every couple of years. Teams are reorganized and reshuffled, only to go through a similiar transformation when the new leadership team comes in to take over a few years later. I have always been lucky to work with a great team. But communication across the organization is horrendous, and the different departments do not communicate with one another.  I still get contacts from people indicating they didn't know our department and team existed. There is very little room for job growth and career development, unless you are part of the chosen few who seem to get promoted or offered new roles within the company, even though they are not qualified for these new positions. Work is often unpredictable and management is always seeming to latch onto the next big thing, instead of leading the industry.

I took a job as a Professional Learning Consultant at HMH because it seemed like an amazing opportunity to advance and grow in my education career. I was hoping to eventually work my way to full-time employment, but when the C-19 recession hit, all part timers were furloughed indefinitely, with no end date in sight. Presuming they bring back the position, working as a PLC for HMH is an excellent opportunity for retired or part-time teachers who want reasonable (not excellent) part-time pay but don't need health insurance. (Pay rate is a complicated formula that starts at $300 per day for a full day's work, unless you're in training, which is $18.75/hour.) If you're leaving full-time teaching and hoping this is an alternative, don't risk it unless you have steady part-time employment elsewhere. 

I spent over a decade working with HMH and love the work that I was doing with school districts. HMH has a strong history in the industry and I was a proud member of that team. The executive leadership in sales is top notch, with innovation solution based leadership. However, the middle management team lacks that same experience. I was constantly disappointed in the small minded thinking of directors who continued to look at the business as a product based sale verses a solution. HR also made the hiring of new employees incredibly difficult. A company is only as good as the people they hire, and they should be treated with respect and communicated with often through the hiring process. That seemed to never happen and it was hard to feel good about recommending people to come to HMH when that was their first experience with the company. Very internally focused and not focused on the customer/employee.

HMH is a bad company to work for, especially in sales. A bloated executive leadership team is tone deaf to the needs of the field. The restrictions on the sales team from top-down mandates are a chokehold on being able to serve customers and compete with other companies who are not so short sighted. Many hard-working and talented people have left the company because it is not conducive to success. Something is wrong when high quality professionals leave due to the work environment that does not enable success. 

Unachievable sales targets, massive workload due bloated and unrealistic territories, shifting strategies, and a disregard for what the field faces in preference to the needs of the executive team make it a toxic environment. HMH’s goal of becoming a “digital first” company is laughable, because it has absolutely horrific tech support for customers with highly glitchy software. 

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Account executive 16 salaries reported	$72,406 per year
Inside sales account executive 17 salaries reported	$51,074 per year
Learning experience designer 6 salaries reported	$76,075 per year
Content specialist 1 salary reported	$87,500 per year
Delivery manager 4 salaries reported	$112,525 per year

Working at HMH: Company Overview and Reviews

HMH

HMH Ratings

Popular jobs at HMH

Salary Satisfaction

Job Seeker Tools

Employer Tools

Browse

Stay Connected