Pros: Great colleagues. Most I met were great to work with. If you're looking to move from a non-CS background to software engineering, it can provide you with a good transition, as they actively hire non-CS grads.

Cons: There are a lot of reasons why I would highly advise against joining EDG, and I have highlighted the main ones. * There is a high probability that you will not get the position you want once you transfer out of EDG. You can end up waiting years for a position to open up in your preferred team. Most people choose to transfer to whatever position is available rather than wait for their preferred position because the technical support (in theory 50% of the work, but often higher) aspect of the work ends up being so unbearable after around 9-12 months. * The department is constantly understaffed, and we are put under a lot of pressure to satisfy the department KPIs of resolving support tickets. This in practice meant pulling a lot of extra work to deal with the workload, and for a long time, even being asked to work on cases during weeks allocated to projects. * The managers are clueless and have limited experience with technical support. They do not seem to understand the challenges of technical support or the fact that most of our challenges stem from being understaffed. If it wasn't for our full-time Technical Support Engineer colleagues with their high-value experience and knowledge, we would be screwed. The managers just blame us for being overwhelmed with cases on "team efficiency." They would constantly come up with terrible ideas that don't work and create an atmosphere where short-term fixes and taking shortcuts (e.g., spending less time per case to resolve it) were encouraged implicitly. When these shortcuts would inevitably backfire and engineers receive low customer satisfaction surveys, the manager would act all surprised that it happened and chastise them. * Work-life balance can be a hit or miss. I had no issues and managed to get work done without working overtime, but I know a lot of people who had to work many extra hours. The main culprit of this was getting new responsibilities without adequate training or support to take on that responsibility. A common situation was when EDGers would be given the rotational team lead role and would work extra hours due to the high volume of tech support cases and the high pressure put on them to deal with it. * A lot of useless/outdated training and processes (which you often need to do during your project weeks). What ends up happening is that, in frustration, answers get copied from more senior staff who have already completed them. * EDG is an afterthought in the company, and it is seen as less important than other roles. An example is that for orientation in pre-COVID times, EDGers are put in the back of the line and can end up waiting over 10 months to complete their BPO (company orientation), while staff from other departments often have the option to do it in the first few weeks/months. * The way that management gets around their failures to hit KPIs is by deflecting the failings to the EDGer. Every year, a certain percentage of EDGers worldwide are laid off due to "performance reasons" (similar to the "hire to fire" policy that other companies use).

Pros: Free cold drinks and nothing else. Kindly take this seriously. I joined MW too because I had no option, and it's difficult to live or leave here.

Cons: From management to employee appreciation, and from working environment to honing one's skills, if I could give 0, I would give 0/100. 1.) People from IITs/NITs/BITS/IIITs are hired at decent salaries and forced to do Technical Support. Now, I am not only against Tech Support, I am also against the micromanagement that the department follows for the employees. Each morning, they have scrums – good, but the managers expect you to speak up something, even if that is out of context or doesn't make any sense. If you don't, you will be bashed in your 1:1. 2.) Project work – You will love working with your project teams and on your project work because most of the teams are good and follow best practices here. But, EDG managers will make it sure to needle you for every small thing here. The reason being: EDG managers are non-technical. They will ask you to explain all about the project, the challenges you are facing, and will not understand the challenges you explain to them. Even for challenges for which the project managers would support you and completely understand the delay. In the end, EDG managers will still thrash you and will put the blame on you for every small thing – "Project being late" and all sorts of small things. 3.) Constant Feedback – Once in 2 weeks, you will be presented with your feedback. Feedback on every small thing. "Not speaking in meetings." "This is what I heard from him/her." "This is what I heard from your project manager." "You are not working on this area." The story doesn't end here. All the small and negative points will be extrapolated, and all the good feedback will not be told to you by the EDG manager. While, when you ask your reviews from your project manager, he would always tell you the true story – plusses and deltas, which would help you push in the next project. Most of the feedback you get from your project manager and EDG manager will not match. This leads to an employee in a depressed/demotivated state, and this happens in a loop (every 2 weeks). But, remember, you just graduated from one of the top institutes of India. Keep your head high and keep working. 4.) Manipulation – Managers manipulate you. They force you to go to the Quality Engg. department, even if you don't want to, or they will insult you so much that you will be forced to either leave the company or go to QE. There is no future and self-growth in the company, and you won't learn any marketable and competent skills. In the end, you will be left with nothing; all your experience will be considered void in other companies. 5.) They expect you to join and organize parties (HR work), which they somehow consider to be part of your leadership and initiative skills (remember, MW is a technical giant). If you don't organize, they will insult you again, blaming you for how terrible of a leader you are. 6.) Micromanagement – EDG managers' job is to help you in managing daily activities and your projects. That's the only job they have, and they fail to perform that too. The story doesn't end here, though. Late to a meeting by a few minutes? – You should have told us you will be late. Can't join a meeting because your mother was sick? – Keep managers informed next time, which means they want us to stop caring for our parents and prioritize work over even your or your relatives' lives.

Pros: The Engineering Development Group is a special team at MathWorks with the following job role: There are two aspects to the job role: 1. Provide Technical Support to Customers 2. Work on internal projects **Technical Support:** You will be working on challenging technical issues with customers. The queries from customers will not be trivial, as they would have googled and read documentation thoroughly before contacting Technical Support. This role demands you to be proficient in multiple domains. For example, to understand a problem in "machine learning," one needs to understand the theory and also how the customer is coding it. I have worked at other companies previously, and it is very rare that an engineer will interact with customers directly. In most other companies, one will be shielded within a development team, without knowing where or how one's code is being used. This role provides an opportunity to improve your technical skills, communication skills, and leadership qualities. **Work on internal projects:** Application Support Engineers can choose to work in any of the following areas: * Software development team * Application Engineering * User Experience Engineering * Quality Engineering Depending on your interest, you can switch teams after completing projects. This offers high flexibility in exploring areas you desire. These two roles will be on two-week shifts. **After EDG:** Once the ASEs become experts in a certain area, they will be transferred to that product team as a developer, QE, or Application Engineer, depending on the ASEs' interest. **About learning:** MathWorks encourages its employees to engage in constant learning. There is dedicated time allotted to read books and discuss concepts with the team. There will be ample training available to ramp up on products and technology. Engineers will travel to the US headquarters after joining to learn about the company's culture and processes. **About the office environment:** There is a good cafeteria with free beverages, tea, coffee, and fruits. Enjoy free breakfast on Wednesday mornings and free snacks on Friday evenings.

Cons: Nothing major. Work from home is not encouraged, as the work demands a collaborative environment.