MathWorks

1. Some part of the outside world thinks you are working on a well-known product.

2. If you are interested specifically in using MATLAB/Simulink to solve MATH/Engineering problems, you might enjoy the job.

3. Good work-life balance. You are working based on a fixed schedule; there is no flexibility, but also no overtime.

4. There are many smart and nice people working here.

5. Part of the benefits is good, e.g., 401K match, unlimited sick days, and there are some nice small perks.

The cons part is only for EDG, and more specifically it is for the experience of computer science people in EDG.

1. MathWorks’ pay to ASE role might not be that bad compared to many mid to small-size companies, but it is still much lower than most large software companies.

2. If your career goal is to do software development, don’t have very high expectations for the EDG program, because it is mainly a technical support role. EDG is part of the technical support department, and your technical support job always has higher priority than all of your other tasks in EDG. Most managers will purposely avoid this fact when they talk to you before you join.

3. MathWorks is an extremely procedural company, so for anything you do, there will be some step-by-step documentation, which is good for many people. However, for some reason, they never make the procedure of transferring out of EDG to a development role clear. The time you spend at EDG actually depends on the number of opening positions in other parts of the company, and they do over-hire sometimes. When this happens, again, your manager will avoid the fact and tell you to not focus on whether there are any open positions, but to focus on improving yourself so an opportunity will come to you.

4. The performance review process is very unclear and inconsistent. The performance rating is from 1 to 6 points, and I have seen someone get praised by his manager and promised a raise, while someone from the same team with a rating just 0.5 lower got warned by the same manager that his career is at risk.

5. Most managers are not from the appropriate technical background, so do not expect them to help you much from the technical perspective. The management is highly technical support oriented, and if you say you have a computer science degree and are very good at software development, your skills will not be much appreciated here.

6. The expected amount of bonus for new hires listed on the hiring material that HR gave to me was way higher than the bonus I actually received, and since all new hires get the same amount of bonus regardless of performance, the information from HR was just not true.

7. Some actions from management are questionable in terms of work ethics. Managers use the threat of not filing working visa applications to push engineers.

Please be honest with employees. Also, since Mathworks decided to have the EDG program, which includes engineers from very diverse backgrounds, please respect this diversity and understand that people from different backgrounds want to do different things and have different career goals.