MathWorks

Free food, incredible office, good benefits, and great for college hires.

The company is structured to benefit tenure. Every person I met there told me how many years they've been at the company within the first three sentences. Really, every single person.

It has a strange, cultish vibe, except they're not doing any crimes. It's great for people who join right from college. College hires are prized above all others.

I came in with 20+ years of experience and watched my bosses give the college kids the pick of projects while I was given an impossible project with zero support.

The code is ancient. The original C code from the 80s is still in the product and will never be removed. The product I worked on was just layers of new code on top of it. It was the worst-architected mess across four languages that I've ever seen in my career.

Every decision is made by committee. When something slips the schedule, blame is placed and people are punished.

I was told no one ever leaves, yet in my short time there, I saw roughly 10% turnaround on my team. There are lots of big smiles and strain and fear behind some people's eyes. It's creepy. It's got a CYA (cover your ass) vibe to the extreme.