blinkdagger

This is the third post recounting my interview experience with The MathWorks. Today’s post is about the first phone call I received from The Mathworks. Click here to see a list of related posts.

MathWorks Rep: Hello, how are you?

Quan: I am doing great.

MathWorks Rep: I have your resume here with me. So I hear you are interested in working for The MathWorks?

Quan: I sure am.

MathWorks Rep: Well, let me tell you a little bit about The MathWorks. We have a wide range of products, of which MATLAB and Simulink are the major ones . . . (contines MathWorks spiel for a couple of seconds). So now that you know a little bit about The MathWorks, are you still interested?

Quan: Sure am.

MathWorks Rep: Great. You’ll be interviewing for a position in the Engineering Developing Group. You would start off doing technical support for a couple of months, and then eventually branch off onto other areas of The Mathworks such as: consulting, application engineering, coding, manager,finance and marketing, etc. It mostly depends on what YOU want to do.

Quan: Wonderful! It sounds like I’ll have a lot of choices on what I will be doing. Since there are so many options, I’m bound to find something that I will enjoy doing.

MathWorks Rep: Yes, there are many areas that you can get in to. This works out pretty good for the most part because most of our new candidates aren’t sure what they want to do. This way, they get a little exposure to a bunch of different disciplines.

Quan: Yeah, it sounds like a good deal. I don’t really know exactly what I would want to do, so this seems like it would be a great opportunity.

MathWorks Rep: Yeah, it’s a really great deal in my opinion. So let’s set up a time for the technical phone interview. The interview will cover basic areas of calculus, linear algebra, MATLAB type questions, and some computer programming type questions. In addition, we want to ask some more in depth questions on one of the following four topics. So far so good?

Quan: Yup, what are the 4 topics?

MathWorks Rep:The 4 topics are: Computer Science, Control Systems, Signal Processing, and Embedded Functions. (Note: I still have no idea what Embedded Functions are to this day!)

Quan: Okay. (enthusiam level curtailed)

MathWorks Rep: So which topic did you want to choose?

Quan: I think I’ll choose Control Systems, since I really don’t know too much about the other three.

MathWorks Rep: Great! We’ll schedule your technical phone interview for next week at 9am, how does that sound!

Quan: Okay . . . .

MathWorks Rep: Don’t worry too much about this interview. Prepare a little bit, but most of the stuff we’ll be asking is very basic.

Quan: Great. I’m looking forward to it. Good bye.

Quan’s Thoughts during This Call

One thing I forgot to mention is that The MathWorks rep also asked me a behaviorial question towards the end of the interview. I wasn’t really expecting it so I spewed out a pretty incoherent answer. So be ready!

Moving on. The first phone call was pretty straight forward and very easy going. There weren’t any difficult questions asked as it was more of a prep for the technical phone interview that follows it. Everything was all cookie and creams until The MathWorks rep started talking about the extra in depth questions on the 4 topics of doom. Of these 4 topics, I only had working knowledge on Signal Processing and Control Systems. Since I got my Masters in Control Systems, it was the only logical choice for me. In all honesty, this was the part that had me sweating the most since it had been a couple semesters since I had last dealt with that stuff.

It’s a good idea to ask the MathWorks rep to break down each of the four topics so you get a better feel for the type of questions they will ask. In all, it was a nice chat and the week or so that they gave me before the actual phone interiew gave ample time to brush up on long forgotten topics.

Dan’s Thoughts during his Call

My telephone conversation was very similar to Quan’s. To give a little background prior to my telephone call, I have been talking to Doug about 1 week to find the right fit for me at The MathWorks. Doug got me in touch with his manager Todd (Adv. Support Group Manager) and a colleague Scott (Program Manager) to describe what their respective department does, discussing other job positions, and my mathworks career development (seriously!). It didn’t give me any advantage for the technical interview, but it really gave me a sense of how The MathWorks operates. But it seems like if you do not have a strong speciality or have not been in the industry long, you will probably interview for the EDG position. If you want to get an opinion of what EDG is like check out this review.

Back to the phone call, here are some things to keep in mind

1. Take notes (even though the EDG information will probably be repeated 5-6 times in future). Study it. Be familiar with it. You will be better prepared when they ask questions that gauge your interest and inquire about your career goals.
2. Ask plenty of questions. There is a time and place for this, and this is the time.
3. Ask clarifying questions. The 4 topics for technical interview may be different to what you are accustomed to. Ask the interviewer to describe the type of content is ask in each topic. At first I thought Signal Processing was my strength, but after listening to all the details… they classified those in Control Systems.
4. Selecting a good interview time. If it has been a while since you dealt with some undergrad mathematics and engineering theory, give your self some 4-5 days of time to prepare a little. In the next post we will share some of the resources that helped us prepared.
5. Get a speaker phone or headset. I did my technical interview on my cellphone. It was not fun holding the phone for 40+ minutes and hoping not to lose signal. Use a land line if possible.

To be honest I was quite surprised the breadth of topics they wanted to cover and the series of interviews that need to be conducted. This is a thorough process similar to other premier companies like Microsoft and McKinsey (I will share my experiences interview for those companies in the future). The interview process may seem long and challenging, but it is definitely rewarding. Each interview I did taught me how to perform better for the next one. I wish I can share them all, but there is so much. So if you have requests please leave us a comment!

Next Time

Next time, we’ll discuss the actual phone interview, and what we did to prep for it. We’re getting closer to the good stuff, so stay tuned!

Quan and Dan are just two normal guys who happen to know a thing or two about MATLAB. Together, they team up to bring you the latest MATLAB offerings. They are a tandem just like peanut butter and jelly. Stockton and Malone. Jordan and Pippen. Samwise and Frodo.