Pros: New ideas and concepts are being worked on.

Cons: The hiring process isn't that good.

Pros: MathWorks creates some of the best (and in some cases, only) scientific computing tools in the industry and is very well recognized. There is an impressive base of engineering grads (an MS is basically required for entry-level positions). In the large majority of cases, people work well together, and there is a cooperative atmosphere. Honesty is placed in very high esteem, and people try hard to conform to that standard. Benefits are very good (401k match percentage is almost unheard of in the industry). EDG/ASE does provide a good opportunity to try out different departments before making a transfer. If you do a good job and are well-liked, you will move up in the ranks fairly quickly.

Cons: In EDG, if you are given the wrong manager (basically assigned by luck), then your career is doomed. Too many mandatory meetings and micromanagement. In some cases, I was asked to write a "plan" for a project that took as long as the actual project itself. There is a strict culture of doing things "the MathWorks way," even if there are better ways out there. Because of this, it takes forever for new features, and even bug fixes, to make their way into the customer's hands. Transferring between jobs inside the company is way more difficult than at other companies that I've worked at. The CS grads tend not to be as talented as engineering grads, yet they are courted more aggressively due to a lack of these types of people. Top-notch engineering grads will come here, whereas top-notch CS grads tend to turn down offers here because they would rather work for Google, Microsoft, Facebook, etc. Base salary is very mediocre. My starting salary at my new job was 25% higher.

Pros: Work with smart people. Challenging, exciting work that varies day to day. Many opportunities to get "training". You do not have to decide on a career until after you work here for a while, so there is flexibility. Career opportunities, though not as many as advertised during the hiring process, they are still there.

Cons: Management for the "Engineering Development Group" should not be managing a development group. They are basically technical support managers, and generally good at that, but do not have any clear mandate to focus at all on the non-support side of this group. This is clear as they continually make decisions that sacrifice engineers' long-term career development at MathWorks for short-term technical support goals. The work culture of the Engineering Development Group is not in line with the principles and values of the rest of the company. The dual demand for our time, coupled with homework assignments (yes, there is homework in EDG), routinely makes working after work hours or on the weekends necessary. The common complaint for this position is simply that the 50/50 support/project time split, which is repeated all throughout the hiring process and at career fairs, is simply not true. 70/30 is more accurate.