Pros

The salary and benefits are good. Fellow employees are for the most part nice and helpful. There is some recognition for working at Cisco.

Cons

Management is slow and goals are vague or inconsistent. Evaluations are subjective and career advancement is not great. Not much recognition for the work you do. Cisco culture is political. Also, they only play Fox News on the TVs at the cafeteria. That news broadcast is way too opinionated, political, and annoying.

Advice to Senior Management

Getting back free soft drinks would be nice. Please stop playing Fox News at the cafeteria. Recognize talent and hard work or allow more opportunities for advancement.

Pros

Latest technologies to work with
if interested, you can get gather the information from other process areas
littleflexible to work remotely

Cons

mgmt suck to the last drop of blood
must be willing to sacrifice with personal life to get little rewards
middle level managers are in their position by circumstances and not by ability

Advice to Senior Management

change the perception and be open to appriciate the work from subordinates.

Pros

1. Good compensation.
2. Flexible hours.

Cons

1. Job getting more and more demanding.
2. Some first line manager need to learn not to micro-managing and how to promote non-stressful work environment

Advice to Senior Management

1. Stop promoting people solely based on political and game playing skill or butt-kissers.

Pros

lots of projects. go getter attitude, cutting edge tech. soft skills galore. training opportunities, good compensation, and bonus. hard work

Cons

chaos, lack of clarity around roles and responsibilities

Advice to Senior Management

cut down on bringing pods that are not qualified to lead key projects. Don't allow people to get their buddies into the org if they are not qualified.

Pros

Great company.
Good benefits
Most managers are flexible - and support a balanced life.
New business units/groups are ready to adapt to new technology and tools

Cons

you might be exposed to politics as you rise up. Ranking system for promotions indicates that someone has to look bad if you have to look good.

Advice to Senior Management

Get rid of ranking systems. In some groups - all the engineers are good! As the workforce ages make sure that benefits are not compromised.

Pros

Nice package when you get laid of. Good benefits. They know how to grow the company. No value for meritocracy. You can hang around without as long as you can get along. Excellent sales team, can sell any crap. Has a Good acquisition engine. No fear of lay-off.
Stable company. John chambers is God !!

Cons

Too political, Highly inefficient. Lot of buerocracy. Lack of innovation. Too slow . Lack of recognition.
Too Big.

Advice to Senior Management

Go to hell , except John Chambers ...

Pros

Very diverse, Cisco Choice Internship Programs allows interns to have a say in which Cisco technology they work on. Cisco is also very rich as can be seen in their dominance in the networking field plus their numerous recent acquisitions.

Cons

If a Startup type atmosphere is your thing, Cisco may not be the best place to work, unless you are working on one of their newer products.

Advice to Senior Management

I was lucky in that I had a great boss, who was very understanding, helpful, and encouraging. I have no complaints in this regard.

Pros

Decent benefits, good work flexibility, some smart folks

Cons

Huge pay gap between VPs and any other level. Company swung to far in cost cutting, gotten from the understandable to the ridiculous for a company with such large profit margins, and such a huge cash pile. The company is run by Frank Calderoni, not by John Chambers.
Too many "priorities", so there are none.

Advice to Senior Management

35 billion in cash. Seriously, you don't need to take the pennies out of your employees pockets by taking away the little things that made this a good place to work for.

Make a decision. Cut the BS "councils". And stop letting Frank and Randy run the company... they can't.

Pros

great worklife balance and excellent salary for new hires

Cons

poor career development track and difficult to get promotions

Advice to Senior Management

focus on employees career development in addition to portfolio management

Pros

- Enterprise Focused
- Great Culture
- Work Life Balance
- Global Growth Opportunities
- Strong, Focussed Teams
- Great Collaboration platforms

Cons

- Bureaucratic at times
- Cross-BU collaboration still tough to do
- Too many re-orgs
- Consumer Strategy not clear

Advice to Senior Management

Nothing