As temp jobs go, this one is pretty nice. Management treats you like an adult, but that means you need to act like an adult. Don't be late, don't return from breaks late. No cellphones. You can get up from your desk and go to the restroom or break room several times a day, and they never hassle you about it. Sometimes you just need to walk away from grading and clear your head. Your productivity is logged automatically by the computer, so they don't need to micromanage you. The pay is pretty good, and you can earn an extra $30 a day for bonuses. I am finding I get a bonus for about 1 out of every 3 days. You get graded on your grading, and that is where the stress comes in. At any time, you can get a robo-mail saying you aren't grading properly, and if that gets too far out of hand, you could potentially lose your job. So, it can be stressful in that way. Grading seems to be both objective and subjective. Some people will not be able to wrap their brains around it. If you are super slow to reason things out and very analytical, this job might not work for you. You need to think...but not too much. I don't know for sure, though, as I am grading writing, and have no experience in the other areas (like grading math). So maybe an analytical person would grade math well? Also, you can think you have the grading down and you know what you're doing, but then you start screwing up, or they put you on a different prompt, and that can take some adjusting and interfere with getting a bo
PRIMARY RESPONSIBILITIES
Achieve and exceed the Pearson preK-12 sales revenue goal in assigned sales and operational expense budgets. Accountable working within assigned sales operational budgets.
Work with the Market General Manager to translate vision and strategy into effective sales actions to maximize profitable revenue across all Pearson preK-12 products, services, and solutions in assigned accounts
Partner with the highest level of decision makers within assigned districts to present broad Pearson solutions that include instruction, assessment, technology, and services solutions to increase student achievement within the district.
Identify solution and point opportunities in each assigned district and mobilize Market resources to bring Pearson K-12 expertise to each opportunity to win the business. Resolve territory product and service delivery issues.
Develop three-year account business plans including an annual sales plan in support of organizational goals and objectives incorporating articulated customer needs and funding criteria.
Prepare sales and pipeline reports showing secured sales, potential sales, and sales opportunity areas implementing the use of strategic sales analytics in assigned accounts
Seek new solutions opportunities for growth in sales territory. Looking for digital sales and emerging opportunities.
Coordinate field input to product management, product development, and marketing groups in advance of sales cycles to ensure M
Only work here if you want to be a cog in the machine
This was, without a doubt, the worst possible place to work for. You are a warm body and nothing else. If you are okay with being micromanaged, not allowed to think on your own, get garbage pay, and consistently getting blamed for things outside of your control, work here.
If you have any modicum of self-respect, find work elsewhere.
Your schedule is set so far in advance, that you have no opportunity to have days off. For example, your schedule for April is released in the middle of March, which doesn't seem bad. But after it is established, there is little wiggle room to get a day off. If you have an emergency, such as needing to make an emergency dentist appointment at the end of April, they respond "why didn't you let us know before the schedule was published?" Once it is written, unless a higher up changes it, you are stuck in a schedule, regardless of what things you have going on outside of work.
This would not be so bad if the work itself was important-- its not. You have to follow strict rules and guidelines, which often feel arbitrary. Rules are set by the Exam Sponsor. You, as the employee, get to be the bad guy if those rules are not followed to the letter. Candidate brings the wrong ID, even though its perfectly valid, because some person in a different state says its not right.
Should you need help, you cannnot make any decisions on your own. You must make a phone call to a help desk, who may or may not decide to answer the phone. More than once I
Pearson has expanded their testing centers to fit 2+ times the former capacities. I believe it was done to impress the clients while cutting testing administrators' hours to the bone. People must quit to get other employment and they are all simultaneously leaving at some test centers because they will get almost no hours for Feb and March, slow months anyway. Open only 9 days in February. I will get 2 $0 paychecks in a row. One cannot believe or depend on the schedule issued, and you can have the day cut even the day before. The regional mgr is a complete idiot and cares nothing about the employees very real problems such as having to wait hours to run to the restroom.
I depended on it as a supplemental income with my social security, but I still needed it to live and pay rent. We have a couple at our center who do not need the income and only work to get out of the house. No one should believe the promised hours nor take this job unless they do not need anything but play money. I can't understand why they would because we are constantly insulted and the attitude toward TA's is that they are a dime a dozen. Out of touch management does not know it takes a long time to learn all that can go wrong, and complex knowledge is required. This company must now drop any kind of standards and will eventually be accepting ex-cons and only people who cannot be employed elsewhere. Worst is no breaks, 2-3 minutes to run to the restroom maybe twice in a 13 hour day, learn to b
ProsCoworkers
ConsAbusive practices, bad regional & corporate mgmt
I thought for a long time about whether I wanted to post any reviews of this company, because I am honestly so much happier now that they're in my rearview mirror and am hesitant to relive things. But I really want to caution potential applicants. They are good at making their employees very jaded while stringing them along with broken promises about how things are going to get better. The job descriptions on their website do not match what is actually needed for the roles. Training is a joke, you learn most of what you need to know from your peers once you get to the floor. The systems are outdated and not built to handle the volume of leads coming in for each school so everything breaks constantly and none of the systems are linked to each other. They legally aren't allowed to fire you over not meeting enrollment goals or write about it in your yearly review but they'll always find a way to punish you or fire you because of it. Senior management puts it on ground level employees to influence culture and middle management are not bought in to company values. This is also a for-profit company and they run all their non-profit college enrollment departments like for profit schools. You aren't there to help students, you're there to sell to them. The departments are filled with ex-University of Phoenix employees and culture is really passive aggressive and toxic. Managers are useless for the most part and are just there to micromanage. Goals are unattainable with how leads are
Great Leadership and partnering between cross functions to keep up morale and insure profitability.
A typical day at work in HR is different everyday because you are dealing with associates,vendors, management team. You have to be able to prioritize and make the best decision you can based on what you know are the facts and what history is available..Always fast paced. There is nothing that can't be done without a little thinking outside the box and keeping an eye on profitability.
Trust building and relationship building are the most important lesson learned. Build relationships with everyone especially your management team. When you make a decision you have take into account what the impact on the other parties will be and if it creates a hardship find some work around so everyone is on board with the decision.
Management: be their consultant. Always keep them in the loop and find ways to help them achieve their goals. HR is not just a support function we truly are business partners and you must understand the business side
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My management team meets weekly and discusses service levels, update financials,job openings and what is being done to fill them,plus marketing strategies,technology hiccups and new acceptance testing and any HR activities that will take place that week or in the next month that require the operations departments support,while maintaining service levels and ensuring associate participation.
Termination is one of the hardest parts of the job because sometimes the job is just not a good match, Could be a recruitment error. Sometimes termi
ProsBirthday recognition monthly, Awards for a job done far above standards, and Incentives for al based on scorecard results, productivity, and attendance
Pearson has been plagued by ever-evolving business models and reactions to the digital publishing market as a whole over the past decade. Their response to the changes has been slow (lumbering) and often misdirected, which is illustrated by "restructuring" and layoffs three times in six years, in 2011, 2013, and 2016.
While the work/social culture is moderately relaxed, the feeling of security has disappeared with the second round of restructuring in 2013, as Pearson has continued to struggle for market-share and positioning in the global electronic publishing market, that is also highly competitive, in the midst of change, and being pursued by smaller more agile competitors.
The work load and expectation is stressful, and management support is variable, from really good at the small team tactical level, to somewhat bad and primitive (I've had to request that my manager calm down, and lower his voice on two occasions) at middle management level. Many non-management level employees experience fear at management/middle-management levels.
The company is mammoth, with approx 38,000 employees world wide, so the feeling of being a "just a number" is present. While they offer good benefits that are well administered, compensation is behind market norms, with ongoing excuses for not offering competitive pay.
They say they invite and reward initiative and "outside the box" thinking, but I have experienced the opposite. Do not trust stated claims on corporate website, som
ProsRemote/WFH options, moderately relaxed work culture, good benefits administration
ConsConstant restructuring, mammoth company, slow and often misguided exective reaction to changes in market
This is the worst micromanagement I have ever seen in my life. You are nothing more than a warm body to them; easily replaced when you burn out due to the mind-numbing nature of the work and the lack of trust and support. If you don't meet a certain speed and accuracy level, you are tersely informed of your inadequacy, via either chat or phone (yes, they will call you and chastise you for being too slow, too inaccurate, etc.), during your shift. There is absolutely no independent thought allowed in this position; if you do not follow the rubric EXACTLY and if your ratings don't match up precisely with those assigned by the more senior scorers, you are forced to retrain (on THEIR schedule, mind you, not yours), and if you're still not perfect, you're fired. I don't know why they hired us if they didn't intend to trust our word. This job requires a bachelor's degree, but like I said, they don't trust you or your education. You are connected to a scoring supervisor for your entire shift and your performance is monitored constantly by an indicator on the screen. This level of micromanagement is not only extremely stressful, it is counterproductive; it's difficult to concentrate and even more difficult to perform well when one is constantly anxious about being chastised for "low validity/performance" at any given moment. Ironically, if we were given more freedom and flexibility, I can almost guarantee performance and morale would skyrocket. Besides the toxic micromanagement, the w
Work-life balance
I went in for an interview for the test administrator/proctor (part-time) position, and it was the most unprofessional interview I ever encountered. The manager started the “interview” by telling me medical information regarding one of his employees and even showing me a picture of the employee’s immobilized leg on his phone. I have a BA in HR and know that this was a HIPAA violation. The manager then said he didn’t understand why HR and his superiors wanted him to hire anyone. He (the manager) never told me about the details of the job. Instead, he said that my wife (who works for Pearson) probably told me about the job over the dinner table, which I found both extremely sexist and inappropriate. He also made a condescending remark about how I got to the test center (my wife and I have only 1 car and she used it to get to work). He never offered me an opportunity to ask any questions, instead want to talk about Maryland’s minimum wage. I left the interview in shock and would not accept the job if I were offered it! This experience has left me with an extremely negative opinion of Pearson as company if they are allowing their management staff to behave in this unchecked inappropriate manner! I will never work for a company that allows this toxic environment to exist! If he is telling strangers about his employees’ personal information what else is he doing? If anyone from Pearson sees this please contact me for more information.
Pay & benefits
Management vi
Pearson USED to be a great place to work! Not any longer.
I am writing this review in hopes someone WAY up in the company reads this, and starts to wonder why productivity is low, employees are demotivated, and employee turnover is SO high. Pearson used to be one of the best places to work. I used to enjoy coming to work. It ALL changed. I will start with the only good things that are left. The GOOD: You don't work nights or weekends UNLESS they bring overtime back, but they took that away WITHOUT ample notice, PTO (Paid time off), great insurance, 401K, nice building and a covered parking garage. I am stretching to find any good that is left. The BAD: Everything else. You will be micromanaged every second of every minute of your day. You will be given UNATTAINABLE goals, you will be written up for not being able to obtain those goals, you will be REQUIRED to use a script on calls, and be REQUIRED to use PRESSURE tactics on your calls to get students to apply. You will be asked to do things that make the "numbers" look better than they are. Every call will be listened to, scored, and you will be LUCKY if the score is correct. They DO NOT care if you mislead the students and say things that are WRONG about the degree/program you are trying to sell. You will fill out anonymous surveys because upper management "SAYS" they want to "FIX" the problems. Not only does NOTHING get fixed, it gets progressively worse. Upper management will BLAME you for issues that are NOT in your control. I am not a disgruntled employee. I a
Near minimum-wage work demanding exacting & diverse professionalism for a staff-indifferent business doomed to fail from mis-prioritisation & meanness
Pearson will be the most penurious corporation you'll ever have the desperation to work for. At every opportunity Pearson Management will seek to avoid justly remunerating you. To achieve this they'll engage in underhand conduct that has to be witnessed to be believed. They'll do this no matter how small the amount that by rights you should receive. The same essential dishonesty can be seen in Pearson's operations for its corporate clients - who like oneself at first, presumably, won't have entertained that a 21st century multi-national company behaves like a greed-driven, unscrupulous back-street trader. While trading like this Pearson cynically extols its self-ascribed virtues and trys to associate itself with certain 'desirable-to-support' causes/groups (e.g. the LGBTQ community). Pearson thereby presents a richly false public image, and quite probably deludes itself. For so large a company to be so contorted there cannot be prosperity ahead for it. Focus - extreme focus - on withholding from staff every penny possible, focus on rigidly controlling the smallest actions of staff, focus on image rather than decency ('decency', so ironically, being one of Pearson's self-promoted 'values'), can only spell eventual decline and death; as can neglect of creating any 'goodwill' at all in staff (e.g. 'Thank You' is something you will never hear from Pearson Management) and neglect of creating solid products (nebulous digital products are Pearson's main offering, and are ripe for u
Top-Heavy Institute hampered by inept Top Level Management
I was a full-time Lecturer at Pearson Institute of Higher Education (PIHE) for nearly 3 years. I was underpaid from the beginning and this was basically a taste of the corporate culture of PIHE and their treatment of their employees.
The Top Management of PIHE is solely focused on profitability at the expense (pun intended) of all other factors associated with the education sector. Due to this blinkered approach, the standards and quality at PIHE have slowly eroded and I personally witnessed this during my time at PIHE. The transition from MGI to PIHE has, in my opinion, caused this shift in the institution.
The actual workplace culture (excluding the "Top Management") is quite pleasant. There are a few bad apples here and there amongst the different faculties, but overall there is a great workplace culture.
PIHE's salary offering is pitiful and there is next to no benefits as well. PIHE is allegedly the most expensive Private Education institution in ZA, but looking at the facilities and the salaries of the lecturing staff, you would doubt that. Their salary offering is way off the Median and/or Mean salary for Lecturers, so don't expect to be paid well if you plan on applying at PIHE. I assume that most of the people in Top Management get paid well (as evidenced by observing their luxury vehicles parked alongside the working class vehicles of everyone else), while the leftovers trickle down to the rest of the employees.
The workload as a Lecturer at PIHE can al
1.0
Customer Service Representative | Manchester | Jun 30, 2020
Customer Service Specialist
I joined this company last year and completed the induction training after a few weeks just before results day. Got thrown into the deep end 1-2 weeks before results day. Probation was 3 months when the senior manager told us that it will take us time to get used to the job.
I did a lot of call and email quality catch-ups with my line manager every week and was given feedback on "improvement" and how this could go against my probation if I did not improve, yet no one else from my training team went through the same headaches with their line managers after speaking to them. They were all surprised when I told them what I was being put through.
I was warned that my line manager was strict and it felt like I had to run through a brick wall just to be able to pass a simple probation, which to us was meant to be simple when we had our induction training; Do not give results out over the phone, make sure you are back from your break in time and don't come late to work every day etc. Seems like training tell you one thing and then you experience something else. I felt sick of this place within my first two months!!!
My probation was extended twice only then to be told I had passed it in January, by then I had already looked somewhere else and received a job offer as my expectations were low.
I have never in my life experienced working somewhere where I have had difficulties passing a probation with no apparent reason, especially when other new employees were not treated the
Prosno weekend work unless you get offered overtime, some nice people to make friends with
Consread the above and snobbish work colleagues who form a click as a group
Questions And Answers about Pearson
What benefits does Pearson offer?
Asked Jun 15, 2016
Convoluted employee stock purchase plan
Answered Nov 7, 2021
High deductible health plans with high copays, decent dental & optical, 401K that is partially matched after a vesting period, FSA, HSA, pretax commuter benefit, long term and short term disability but not stellar plans for these.
Answered Nov 7, 2021
How are the working hours at Pearson?
Asked Jun 15, 2016
In the test centers anywhere between 7 a.m. and 8 p.m.
Answered Nov 7, 2021
Set 8 hour days
Answered Sep 25, 2019
What is the interview process like at Pearson?
Asked Jul 6, 2016
Screened via phone call from the outsourced office in the Philippines
Answered Nov 8, 2021
They call you from a 1800 number but use a random area code. Could be coming from Nebraska, Kentucky- who knows. Combined with the fact that they use a dialing system that can skip rings and send straight to voicemail, they have audacity to act as though you missed the call and are somehow already at fault before the interview starts. antisocial. They enter a lengthy process seeking candidates who have nothing going on in their lives so as to make room for part time work. Good for some.
Answered Nov 8, 2021
How often do you get a raise at Pearson?
Asked May 24, 2021
Yearly
Answered Aug 11, 2022
1%-2% a year.
Answered Aug 11, 2022
What is the best part of working at Pearson?
Asked Nov 23, 2019
The mission and the people
Answered Apr 29, 2022
The technology is excellent and the flexibility in the position makes this a very rewarding job.
