sales representative

high school teacher

editor

marketing assistant

editorial assistant

Macmillan-Learning

I love almost everything about my job with MacMillan. The schedule is flexible, and I can work remotely. There is a team atmosphere, but it's not overbearing. 

I love that I get to learn on the job. 
I love that the culture is friendly, but low key.
The pay is pretty decent for the position.

The biggest downside is that many employees (including me) are contracted through and employment agency and don't receive any benefits. I don't get sick or vacation days--no PTO whatsoever. I also have to keep my hours slightly under 40 per week (I normally clock 39:55) so they aren't legally required to give me benefits.

I would love to be hired on, but a position that I qualify for would have to become available. They normally don't hire contracted employees based on performance or longevity.

On the other hand, they have kept finding work for me pretty consistently over the past few years, despite the fact that I was initially hired for a project that was completed in 2020. I am extremely grateful for the things I've learned and the experience I've gained from working at MacMillan. Working for a major publisher is a great thing to put on a resume. I hope to find long-term employment with MacMillan, but it that doesn't happen, they've set me up for success in future job seeking.

When I started at Macmillan it was the MOST laid back understanding company with a great work life balance and understanding family centered culture but SLOWLY things started to shift, new management, new structure and now it is all about micro managing, data input and a bonus/goal structure that is not only ridiculous ( all reps/territories have the same goal) and unclear (no one understands the how or why) the goal keeps increasing even though the company has not made it's goal and they bonus did not. Now reps are expected to document everything and there are uncertainties about future layoffs. Do NOT work for this company!! There are better paying jobs with more work/life balance.

Macmillan used to be a fun place to work. It’s been overrun by employees coming from corporate publishers and they’ve tuned it into the opposite of what we used to pride ourselves on. Sales base pay is much lower than competitors and goals are set by finance with no understanding of the market or day to day struggle with the industry. Goals are unattainable so they don’t have to pay bonuses. They use statistics to make goal look attainable yet hardly anyone does. Upper management tells you what to do and how to do it but offers no help. Don’t work here if you want to be a valued or make a decent salary. Executives and upper management make the big paychecks while everyone else does the work. 

Consider that this review is based on my experience as an illustrator in Austin, which is just one tiny corner in a big company like Macmillan. I didn't interview with Macmillan so I can't talk about what that process is like. I was part of a small start-up that got bought by Macmillan. The culture became more corporate, of course, but it wasn't terrible. My immediate supervisors were really supportive. I felt like a valued member of our team. I was afforded a lot of autonomy in my work. 

Typical day involves analyzing pipeline and formulating a call list based on priorities determined from pipeline
Learned how to manage a territory and how to manage customer relationships, as well as how to lead a team
Workplace culture was optimal. Personable, warm, collaborative environment. Work-life balance at its best. 
Hardest part of job was that such a big piece of sales success is tied to revenue you have no control over and no transparency into how revenue was determined or reported.

Company offers great benefits and depending on sales territory/manager, great work autonomy and work life balance. Rewarding work selling textbooks and digital learning technology  to students and professors. Some good authors with industry name recognition. 

Working with colleges and universities to provide solutions and success for incoming students transitioning from high school, community colleges to universities.
Creating a curriculum for educators teaching courses in science, technology, engineering and math in higher education.
Working with bookstores and universities for cost effective solution for students and their families striving striving achievement for individual courses and career goals.

This company is probably the best within a dying industry. Publishers are desperately trying to stop the bleeding, and management frequently celebrated losing less market share YoY than major competitors. Great ideas and brilliant people, but a lack of decisive leadership. Highly political, so effective and proven processes would be rejected in lieu of odd processes proposed by the "in" crowd.

ML used to be a terrific place to work, but current leadership is flailing. 3 reorgs in 2025 alone, with layoffs, means morale is in the toilet. Management seems to look at the org chart and move the pieces on the board as their solution to each challenge. Employees are treated as interchangeable widgets and have zero input in decisions. Still great benefits and colleagues, but overall a demoralizing place to work these days.

The biggest problem is that the company changes directions every few weeks which results in total chaos among the employees not knowing what priorities are.  Management is horrible.  Second, every team is stomping on each other team's code so the dev and test environments are rarely up.  This is a result of terrible project management and lack of communication.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Sales representative 11 salaries reported	$70,273 per year
High school teacher 15 salaries reported	$92,500 per year
Editor 7 salaries reported	$64,071 per year
Marketing assistant 3 salaries reported	$42,000 per year
Editorial assistant 1 salary reported	$42,000 per year

Working at Macmillan Learning: Company Overview and Reviews

Macmillan Learning

Macmillan Learning Ratings

Popular jobs at Macmillan Learning

Salary Satisfaction

Job Seeker Tools

Employer Tools

Browse

Stay Connected