Applications Support Engineer Interview Experience - London, United Kingdom
Process
Surprisingly unprofessional interview process.
Online application - CV & cover letter
Got an email within a couple of days to organize a Skype interview. This was a bit of a mess in itself. I was told that I had to use Skype on a Windows machine and that Linux/Mac wouldn't work. I only had access to Linux/Mac, so I couldn't do Skype because there isn't support for Skype for Business.
Eventually, I managed to organize a phone interview. It lasted about 20 minutes. The questions were mostly standard. I was asked what Mathworks does, what EDG does, etc. Pretty standard. I also got questions about my knowledge of Computer Science and Control Theory. These were mostly quite easy, quick-fire questions (e.g., what is a stack? How would you describe OOP briefly? Describe a function that finds duplicates in an array).
I was told that I passed this stage straight away and that I would get another call soon for a follow-up interview.
Got a call roughly a week later, which ended up being a 5-minute call to confirm that I was still interested in the position. I'm not sure what the point of this was. Then, another phone interview was scheduled. Yes, a third "phone interview".
This third phone interview lasted about 45 minutes to an hour and was more technical. I got questions regarding six categories: Programming concepts, Java, C, C++, Matlab, and Maths. It was obvious that I performed quite poorly in this interview, but I was told that I would hear back within 1-2 days. This was two months ago now, and I still haven't heard back, so I'm assuming I was unsuccessful. The phone interviewers were generally quite rude.
They seemed very keen to test your existing knowledge rather than your way of thinking and hence ability to learn and grow, which is very surprising in this day and age. It was almost like a trivia quiz on maths and programming.
Questions
What is the formal definition of:
- The limit of a function?
- The integral of a function?
- The derivative?
How is Java code compiled and run?
What do malloc etc. functions do?
What is the difference between struct and typedef struct?
How does a hash table work?
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Interview Statistics
The following metrics were computed from 1 interview experience for the MathWorks Applications Support Engineer role in London, United Kingdom.
Success Rate
MathWorks's interview process for their Applications Support Engineer roles in London, the United Kingdom is extremely selective, failing the vast majority of engineers.
Experience Rating
Candidates reported having very negative feelings for MathWorks's Applications Support Engineer interview process in London, United Kingdom.
MathWorks Work Experiences
- 4.0Work in MathworksApplications Support Engineer • Current EmployeeBoston, Massachusetts, United StatesFebruary 25, 2014Pros: Smart people, a comfortable working environment.Cons: Average payment, not flexible with arrangement.
- 4.0A great company to work for in general (not so much if you are an ASE)Applications Support Engineer • Current EmployeeNatick, Massachusetts, United StatesMay 5, 2018Pros: These are only my personal opinions after half a year in MW. 1. Benefits are sort of competitive. There are rather frequent social gatherings across departments. 2. Everybody, I mean literally everybody, in my department is nice and helpful. Great dynamics in the team. 3. The training process is smooth and helpful. You would find yourself quickly improving along the process. 4. Overall work-life balance. Light workload for most of the time.Cons: These are the cons that are specific to my department: 1. While the ASE department (i.e., the technical support department) has good working dynamics overall, you would sometimes find yourself in difficult situations when dealing with the actual development team. You could definitely feel their attitude toward you because you were just trying to hang out with them for the purpose of transferring to their team. 2. The reviewing process is VERY unclear. They would tell you everything they would consider but not exactly how they review you (basically, nothing useful). 3. The transfer process is totally random and uncontrollable. This is kind of frustrating because you are sometimes good enough for a team, but there is just no opening. This encourages turnovers frequently. 4. The position essentially means you will provide customer service while doing some corner project works for other people. However, I felt it was described as mostly doing projects when you occasionally write people emails. This is not communicated well in the interviews. Not that they were trying to lie to you or hide it. When they have been in the company for a long time, they might have different views on how much time the technical support work would take. But you will be the TECHNICAL SUPPORT; you will pick up phone calls for a large portion of your time. DO NOT assume the support part of your job is negligible. 5. Not trying to be an *hole here, but the percentage of a certain nationality has been increasing. You would notice a lot of them are actually friends who know each other. Yes, referral has its magic here, but the current situation is too much. I mean, like 70% of the new hires are from a particular country. I don't have the evidence to say that the hiring process is rigged or something, but the company needs to investigate it. Mathworks has a limited interview question pool, which makes this even more suspicious. Overall, I think it is a great position for you if you are from an engineering-related area and want some super entry-level job to get onramp to software engineers. If you already have enough development experience, this might not be a good place for you to improve yourself. Mathworks is a good place for you to stay for the rest of your life, so if you are ready to commit in the long term, this is also a good position for you.
- 5.0Good place to retireApplications Support Engineer • Current EmployeeBengaluru, Karnataka, IndiaJuly 15, 2020Pros: Values its employees and has a good work-life balance.Cons: Not the best place to start your career.
MathWorks Interview Questions
