There are a few things you should know before accepting an offer:
1. Employee turnover: MAQ Software has incredibly high employee turnover. It was rare to go a month without having someone in the office leave.
2. Work-from-home: MAQ Software does not allow work from home. They were very good during the pandemic, but once work-from-home was no longer required, they became incredibly strict about it. They expect you to go into the office every day, although the severity of the strictness of this expectation varies depending on your team and manager. Assume you won't be able to work from home. There is some flexibility around needing to leave early for an appointment, but a lot less for needing to regularly leave early (even if you're making up the hours).
3. Work hours: MAQ Software has a strict 9 AM start time regardless of whether you worked late on previous days. With offices in India and customers around the world, you will also often be expected to take calls late at night (6-10 pm) and early in the morning (7-9 am). There is also a weekly learning hour that is mandatory and takes place every Thursday at 6:30 or 7:30 pm (depending on daylight savings). No, you don't get to leave early to compensate.
4. Micromanagement: You will be expected to meet with your team and manager every morning to discuss your day plan and send a daily status update email at the end of every day. You will basically be asked to track every hour you spend at work using their task-tracking system.
5. PowerPoint presentations: You will be expected to create a lot of presentations. Some are for customers, but many are for weekly learning hour (you will be expected at some point to deliver a 15-minute presentation on a topic) or to present project status to leadership. The latter two will be scrutinized far more closely and rigidly than anything you actually show customers. There are also arbitrary rules like "we don't use cyan because the CEO doesn't like it" that you will only learn by accidentally breaking them and getting into trouble.
6. Dress code: There is a business casual dress code that explicitely prohibits "brightly colored or neon" hair, visible tattoos, and long hair on men. While the application is a little less strict than what's written (many male employees have long hair and others have tattoos), it creates an atmosphere of uncertainty.
7. Compensation: You will possibly be paid less than industry standard for the area. I certainly was. You can check this against figures listed on Glassdoor. There is also a bonus scheme that has zero transparency. They won't tell you what affects bonuses or how often they give them.
8. The books: You are expected to read "What I Did Not Learn at IIT" and "What I Did Not Learn at B-School" (written by the CEO) either before starting or as part of your onboarding. If they give you a certain vibe, then trust that. Their vibe is exactly what the company's vibe is.
9. The CEO: The CEO is a bully. Plain and simple. He rarely, if ever, trusts the expertise of those around him. He will fixate on small mistakes (or what he deems mistakes) without ever looking at the bigger picture. If you pitch an idea with a 20-slide presentation, he will stop paying attention the second he spots a typo. If you disagree with an opinion of his, he will shut you down. There is no room for discussion or idea exchange. I actually really liked my job at MAQ Software until I began having more and more interactions with the CEO. I began leaving the office feeling disrespected and burnt out.
