MathWorks Reviews

Pros

Good manager, fit to my major. The colleagues are very talented. The work load is reasonable. The location is good also.

Cons

The cafe is not so good. The job is quite routine, so not that interesting. I cannot think of any more.

Pros

Process and management oriented development environment
Good guidance for new hirer
Great communication among employee
stable market share

Cons

Conservative company development strategy
Slow response to new technology
Long path for career promotion

Advice to Senior Management

Think more aggressively and upfront

Pros

1) Worklife balance
2) Easygoing
3) Lots of free time and food

Overall an easy place. to work. Your wife will be happy you work there

Cons

1) No career advancement
2) Mediocre salary

Advice to Senior Management

Give people more opportunities

Pros

Smart and fun coworkers in a laid back working environment. People tend to approach things in a very logical and rational way. Geek humor is prevalent throughought the company. The employee amenities are excellent - individual offices, decent cafeteria, snacks and drinks, and fun company outings.

Cons

Not a lot of room for serious career advancement, and the algorithmic compensation structure does not encourage heroic efforts. Natick is a sleepy town for young professionals.

Pros

This is a stable environment in a great location. The work-life balance is excellent. They have an old but established product. Lots of bright people around

Cons

The company is full of slogans about their values that are largely absent in practice. The review process is political and highly unfair. People stick around for decades and do next to nothing. They are promoted based on who they know. The biggest problem is that this environment is detached from the real world of software development. The skill set you pick up may not be what others need. In short you have to drink the kool-aid and sing the company song otherwise you are in trouble.

Advice to Senior Management

Change the middle management. Bring people from outside. Stop being so insular

Pros

Decent Benefits, Nice Location on Rte 9

Cons

Usless Upper Management Staring at VP Levels. Most have been there sinse the 90's and adhere to " Cover My Back and I will Cover Your's. Most Sr VP's came from a Suprvisor Background and feel constantly Challenged by New Employees who are Creative & Experienced.

Advice to Senior Management

Get some New Life and Ideas starting at the VP Level

Pros

Smart people, respectful culture, good products that users love

Cons

Overbearing HR performance review process

Pros

Great perks. Trips to Florida, Cruises, free breakfasts etc. Very relax and low pressure lots of talented people, conveniently located in Natick

Cons

The company is completely become a process oriented company. It has also become extremely conservative. Many groups don't do anything. They browse the web all day.

Advice to Senior Management

Promote people that work hard and encourage people to use new technologies.

Pros

It is a good stable place to work at; people are nice in general - very collegial atmosphere; people are very smart in general - lots of Masters/PhDs who know their stuff and know how to apply them to practical problems. People try to do good stuff and more often then not are working on something interesting.

Company has seen continuous growth throughout its existence so far - Jack and others have made wise choices that have enabled them to weather some fairly serious economic storms. Layoffs are not common but are done in a hush-hush way.

You get to interact with customers directly esp if you are in technical roles who most of the times respect the company and are very willing to share information - I have seen more doors open for MathWorks than any other place.

Cons

Smacks of bureaucracy with processes, middle managers etc..

Lack of career growth opportunities or even clear directions/paths is just mind boggling. There is absolutely no clarity in how to go from one level to another. Promotions are non-existent.

Constantly understaffed because of which projects go under resourced, or don't get completed. Contributing factor I think is that some of the good people leave because of median to less than median pay, lack of growth opps.

Information sharing between groups is not efficient even for a fairly small company. But in its defense it is probably a function of rapid growth it has seen over past few years.

Not nimble enough - MathWorks doesn't have serious competition and that is why it has survived for so long. Lack of competition could just be a function of the diverse portfolio of products and industries in which it operates. MathWorks is increasingly looking Microsoft of technical computing world minus the evilness part.

Advice to Senior Management

Take a long view of things. Clarify career growth paths and actively build future leaders not drones.
Make MathWorks an exciting place to work for everyone - the drudgery at the lower end is just mind bogglingly brain damaging.

Pros

Benefits are outstanding. Free breakfast, subsidized on-site gym, summer weekends at Mt. Washington, NH, winter cruises to Cozumel, Mexico. Facility is nice. Conference rooms are comfortable Almost everyone has an office; everyone has a flat-panel 17 inch monitor. On-site cafeteria is cheap and food is good. Free parties ("Tuesdays") with food and liquor about once-a-month. Pay is decent (but not great) and bonuses are OK.

Cons

Extremely bad management. The middle managers are the most inept group of people you could have the misfortune to meet. Engineers who can't write code and can't ever get a project finished are the ones promoted. The internal processes, such as the build system, are a buggy nightmare. The templates for writing internal documents, including performance reviews and software specs were all designed by people who have no idea of how document templates work. The performance review cycle is ridiculously elaborate and rewards inaction and ineptness.

Advice to Senior Management

Get rid of 50% of the middle managers are 75% of the directors. Get rid of the Build-and-Test system; even the engineers who work on it hate it.