Mathematica Employee Reviews about "interesting work"

Pros

Incredibly talented and committed colleagues, flexible work environment, strong benefits including lots of PTO, lots of access to senior management including lots of town halls with the CEO, and interesting work. Employee owned, so when the company does well I do too, and the company has done well consistently. Also like the very visible committment to diversity and inclusion.

Cons

Uncertainty as the research field changes. Hard to know how much your job will change and when, but it's also an interesting opportunity.

Advice to Management

Keep communicating openly and honestly. Don't worry about how staff will respond, we're adults -- tell it to us like it is.

Pros

flexible on work-life balance, brilliant colleagues, ever-changing and interesting work

Cons

can be slow to advance

Pros

Intelligent people; important and interesting work; articulation of company mission and values. A fantastic learning experience, albeit sometimes as trial by fire.

Cons

Company values never seemed to materialize in day to day activities. MPR believes they are an employee driven company, that the work they bid on is work that employees want to be involved in. This seemed true if you had an established niche or network of coworkers with whom you have rapport with. The hierarchical structure of the organization, and the way it was daily palpable, ensured a sense of some being "more... equal then others." As the company grew, it felt more isolated, alienating, and competitive rather than warm, familiar and collegial.

Advice to Management

The values espoused by the company are to be lauded, but they seem to be manifest in cliques rather than evenly.

Pros

Smart colleagues and interesting work

Cons

Tight deadlines and billable hours

Pros

Important work to be doing. Mathematica is so big that it can take on really complex and interesting work. It is very competitive on bids. Good benefits (other than pay). True 9-5 job with no expectation of work after hours. Very defined ladder for advancement.

Cons

As someone with substantial work experience and a Master's degree, a large proportion of my work was administrative work like formatting documents. I did not have an opportunity to use the skills I have, and my past experience was not taken into account in terms of what I might be able to handle on projects. I was hired at a certain pay-grade because that's where people who have a Master's degrees always start. I... truly felt like a cog in the wheel. Pay was not at all competitive. I was not inspired to do my best work here.

Advice to Management

There is no need for the degree of bureaucracy that's in place in this organization. Value creativity and innovation. Empower employees. Reward good work. Promote staff when people are ready rather than only at the pre-determined review time.

Pros

Work Life balance, good benefits, interesting work, you get to choose your own projects, great corporate culture, telecommuting and working from other offices flexible, opportunities to move up

Cons

Sometimes there is not enough work to go around and I sit around bored... It's not the worst problem to have I guess

Advice to Management

Too much overhead time is demoralizing.

Pros

Positive work environment, healthy work/life balance, interesting work

Cons

No bonuses, expected to work from home when sick versus take a sick day, deadlines often seem to fall at the same time

Advice to Management

Management is generally great. More transparency would be nice.

Pros

I worked on and off part-time at the Survey Operations Center for about two years while I looked for full time work in my field. I worked as a telephone survey interviewer, locator and did some clerical work. The surveys topics that I was involved in included health care, food stamps and nutrtion. Pretty interesting work. No selling and no election polling stuff. You also have the flexibility to make your own... schedule and the supervisors and managers are willing to work with you if you need to make changes to it. People are friendly. They have monthly birthday parties for staff and a nice holiday party each December.

Cons

Sometimes the people you call are jerks and nasty to you on the phone. But the supervisors train you on how to deal with people like this, and it can be a fun challenge trying to convince them to do the survey. The work is on-call, so if they don't have enough survey projects for you to work on you might get laid off. I was laid off a few times. But if your work is good they will bring you back.