Pros
MathWorks is a growing, highly profitable company with interesting technologies and products.Its structure -- many small highly interrelated product and market units -- should present many opportunities to innovate and take initiative. MathWorks will not tolerate abusive interpersonal behavior.
Kontras
1. Numerous directors told me no one can speak directly, that it is unacceptable to discuss differences of opinions in the open. You have to do it one-on-one. This culture often makes it dangerous to take the initiative when you should. The end result is that many people settle into secure positions and stop thinking and innovating, and wait to be told what to do. Accepting this compromise is destructive for dynamic people, and in the long run it will have serious consequences for the company. 2. Management has said that the main purpose of the performance appraisal system is to improve employees through intense criticism. Recognizing contributions to the company is a secondary objective. This poor policy is compounded by the fact that the senior management lacks the insight into people and culture needed to exercise anything approaching this level of control over people. 3. The company line says this is a high trust environment. A colleague told me after he left that it is a low trust environment, and he could have survived if he had played it that way from the start. I agree with his assessment. 4. For a person who wants to do his job and go home without a lot of personal engagement, MathWorks is on balance no worse than the average company, and in some ways it is better.