MathWorks Technical Writer Interview Questions & Reviews

Interviewed Nov 2011 in Natick, MA (took 3 weeks)

The interview process at MathWorks is very extensive. They will invest a lot of resources on you, and want to be sure their investment pays off.

Coming onboard The MathWorks (or TMW), consisted of:

1. Online application. I applied twice for the same job. The first time, I heard nothing. The second time they called me the very next day. So apply multiple times if needed.

2. First recruiter call. A TMW recruiter will call you, ask you some basic questions about your education, experience, and reasons for wanting to joint TMW. If all is good, you will have a date and time for a phone interview with the hiring manager.

3. Phone interview with hiring manager. The interview lasted ~30 minutes. We talked about my education, work experience, experience with MathWorks products (MATLAB, Simulink), and reasons for applying to TMW. They want you to want to be there. For the right reasons.

4. On-site interview day. I drove to Natick and met with an eight-member interview board. There were two important aspects to the onsite interview process:

A. Powerpoint presentation. They ask you to prepare a 45-minute .PPT presentation and speak in front of the entire interview board. They don't do this to test your public speaking ability (unless your job requires public speaking). Instead, they do this to save you from repeating the same story to everyone.
You split your presentation into two segments: a 15 minute segment about yourself (education, experience, motivations for joining TMW), and a 30 minute segment about a meaningful project, academic or industrial.
Don't fret the .PPT presentation (although I did). They aren't looking for how you saved the planet from hunger. It is just a room full of normal people, curious about another normal (hopefully) person. They do care that you're honest. If you don't know something, you will make a better impression by admitting it quickly, rather than trying to contrive an answer. Say "That's a good question, and I can get back to you on that, but at this point I don't have an answer for you".

B. One-on-one interview. Eight of them. You will chat with them, again about your education, experience, and reasons to be there. The first interview is with your recruiter. If you're there, they already have a degree of confidence in your education and experience. Your recruiter cares mostly about your character, past performance, ability to learn, ability to get along with others, etc. The rest of the interview board cares mostly about your skills and education.

5. Second Recruiter phone call. If the feedback from the interview board was positive, and the consensus was to hire you, the recruiter will call you a second time. He will fedex a new-hire package to your address, with a booklet about TMW, and forms which you need to fill out.

6. Paperwork. You will have lots of paperwork to fill out. The most important of these at this stage are:
i. Reference info form. They will call them and talk with them for ~30 minutes. Trust me.
ii. Background check. They hire a professional company to check the accuracy of your reported work and educational history. They also check your criminal history.
iii. Transcript request.

7. First day. You will come in to a small conference room, and meet with other new hires. Human Resources will guide you through bundles of paperwork for the entire half-day. Rinse and repeat on the second day.

8. Meet your office and your team. Self-explanatory.

You're not done yet. The company has several new hire training programs, which you will go through:

1. DEV-101. This is an introduction to the development tools and processes used at TMW. The training lasts five half-days.
2. Big Picture Orientation (BPO). This is an introduction to TMW. People from different departments, including the company president, come talk to the entire group of new hires. Each new-hire class is ~40 people. The class lasts 2.5 full days.

And then, as a new BPO graduate, you get to plan a party for the entire company. They call it the "Tuesday". You create a theme for the party (e.g. football, or christmas). You plan food, drinks, and entertainment paid for by the company. Each Tuesday is different, but there's usually lots of beer and wine and pizza. You get to hang out with your workmates for a couple hours after work.

By the way: people at TMW are unusually friendly and laid back. Be professional and courteous, but don't be afraid to smile and be yourself (although that is much easier said than done when a job is on the line).

And finally, TMW has an unusually high worker morale. I think that speaks volumes for how the company treats its workers.