Applications Support Engineer Interview Experience - Natick, Massachusetts
June 1, 2014
Negative ExperienceNo Offer
Process
Recorded video interview, followed by a technical phone interview, and then a technical on-site interview.
In addition to the HR and Hiring Manager interviews, you will participate in a Technical Interview. You can expect an assessment on one of the following, relevant to your background:
(Computer Science) The engineer you are interviewing with will take some time at the beginning to discuss your background and which interview topics suit you best. The interview will cover:
- Basic math: discrete math, computation, and algorithm theory
- Programming concepts: OOP, data structures, and operating systems
- Three programming languages that best fit your background. Options include:
- C
- C++
- Java
- Web Programming (Java, JavaScript, HTML/HTML5, XML)
- Ruby on Rails
- MATLAB programming
(Engineering) The engineer you are interviewing with will take some time at the beginning to discuss your background and which interview topics suit you best. The interview will cover:
- Basic math: calculus, differential equations, and linear algebra
- Programming concepts: programming constructs, style and logic, OOP concepts
- One programming language: C, C++, or Java (C++ or Java is recommended)
- MATLAB: basic MATLAB syntax, commonly used functions, and documented concepts
- One specific engineering discipline that best fits your background. Options include:
- Control Systems: classical control, modern control, and non-linear systems
- Signals Processing: concepts such as aliasing, convolution, and transforms
- Embedded Systems: Real Time Operating Systems, Scheduling, and General OS Concepts
Questions
Some of the on-site interview questions were:
- Can you increment a void pointer?
- Partial fraction expansion
- What's wrong with: m = int[10]; for (i=0; i<=10; i++) m[i] = 1;
- a = [1 2 3; 4 5 6]; b = [1 2; 3 4]; What is a(b)?
- Draw the derivative of a simple function on the board.
- Inverse z transform
- s functions
- How to plot something as a function of time
- How to plot two sine waves in Simulink.
- How to set the color of one line in a plot red?
- What is gcf? (MATLAB)
- Find the eigenvalues and an eigenvector of a 2x2 function. How do you check that the eigenvector is correct?
- Find the projection of one 2D vector onto another.
- Write a function to open a file and write a word to it.
- In MATLAB, what does char(vector) do? For a given vector with integers in it, what does char of that vector output?
- Equation for gradient
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Interview Statistics
The following metrics were computed from 170 interview experiences for the MathWorks Applications Support Engineer role in Natick, Massachusetts.
Success Rate
24%
Pass Rate
MathWorks's interview process for their Applications Support Engineer roles in Natick, Massachusetts is very selective, failing most engineers who go through it.
Experience Rating
Positive56%
Neutral30%
Negative14%
Candidates reported having very good feelings for MathWorks's Applications Support Engineer interview process in Natick, Massachusetts.
MathWorks Work Experiences
3.0
Good Balance, Low Pay
Applications Support Engineer • Current Employee
Natick, Massachusetts, United States
May 15, 2015
Pros: Good work-life balance. Can grow really fast if you are working in the right team.
Cons: Paygrade is very low compared to other software firms.
4.0
A great company to work for in general (not so much if you are an ASE)
Applications Support Engineer • Current Employee
Natick, Massachusetts, United States
May 5, 2018
Pros: 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.
5.0
Amazing people, great work atmosphere, awesome perks
Applications Support Engineer • Current Employee
Natick, Massachusetts, United States
August 21, 2014
Pros: Very friendly and supportive co-workers.
Awesome perks.
The company really cares about employees.
Lot of opportunities for leadership roles.
Easy switch to different teams.
They are getting bigger every year, so it's exciting to be a part of the growth.
Cons: The review process is too elaborate. The stakeholder plan is a major part of salary; without it, the salary looks just average.
- 3.0Good Balance, Low PayApplications Support Engineer • Current EmployeeNatick, Massachusetts, United StatesMay 15, 2015Pros: Good work-life balance. Can grow really fast if you are working in the right team.Cons: Paygrade is very low compared to other software firms.
- 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.
- 5.0Amazing people, great work atmosphere, awesome perksApplications Support Engineer • Current EmployeeNatick, Massachusetts, United StatesAugust 21, 2014Pros: Very friendly and supportive co-workers. Awesome perks. The company really cares about employees. Lot of opportunities for leadership roles. Easy switch to different teams. They are getting bigger every year, so it's exciting to be a part of the growth.Cons: The review process is too elaborate. The stakeholder plan is a major part of salary; without it, the salary looks just average.
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