Pros

If you want a company with a good brand, market share and status, Cisco is a good one. Good opportunities for working remote. Good to have 1-2 years of Cisco experience on your resume, then look for a firm that you'd want to work at.

Cons

Cisco has either bought or driven most competitors into the ground resulting in no urgency around providing quality products. No transparency into the promotion process, it works as a good old boy network. Aside from a few token women VPs, there are no career advancement opportunites for women. Management does not listen to employees - their egos are so large, they either know it all already or they are too busy fighting internal territorial battles. If you want a company exploding with arrogance, this is the right one.

Advice to Senior Management

One day there will be other companies that provide the same end results with products/services - customers will remember all of the poor quality products they had to put up with, as well as the complexities in doing business with Cisco and will leave in a hurry.

Pros

- Ability to work remotely
- Easier to sell Cisco than selling a niche product in this economy.
- Good on-site facilities if you live in the Bay Area

Cons

1) BIG TIME Politics
2) If you want to learn the art of Kissing !@$, this is the place for you
3) Too many layers of management
4) No work life balance

Advice to Senior Management

There is no need for EPM's (employee reviews) if you are going to reward those that do do #1 and #2 well (in Cons). In order to do this, you have to minimize the number of management layers in order for the folks doing their job well to be recognized. Not everyone is wired to play into politics. If you continue rewarding those that tell you what you want to hear, changes are not going to be made to maintain Cisco's leadership position in the marketplace.

Salary alone is not going to keep people happy. When the market turns, I would suspect our competitors will go after our best talent because if anyone is reading what is being posted on Glassdoor.com, there are obviously employee satisfaction issues. As much as we all think Cisco is THE PLACE to work in Silicon Valley, I beg to differ. Any company that is in growth mode would get my attention if the right opportunity was offered.

Pros

1) Empowerment, this is a company which does what it says it will do. It's pretty much up to you where and how far you take it.

Cons

Just like the Internet, we never really "shut off". Employees who want to work a regular 9 to 5 job need not apply.

Advice to Senior Management

Perhaps telling the employees that once in awhile it's okay to fail. That's how lessons are learned for life. Other than that good job.

Pros

I worked there as an intern, and thought it was a great place to spend an internship. Cisco has a really laid back, west coast culture, especially the IT group. My manager always listened to our concerns and was understanding about time off and working from home. Overall, a good experience.

Cons

Larger Organization means it's harder to maneuver within the group. I've not experienced this yet, but thats what i've heard. Also, the HR is super disorganized. There was no proper on-boarding process, and i felt like i just fell into my cubicle one day.

Advice to Senior Management

Try harder to get the younger employees involved. Other than the usual corporate meetings and gestures. Emphasize on developing culture.

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

Great benefits, good food, ability to telecommute

Cons

Cisco is a behemoth. I found it to be a very impersonal, cold environment where a majority of the employees seemed to have drank the Cisco "kool-aid."

Advice to Senior Management

There are some good people at Cisco, however, a couple of the managers that I worked with really made my experience there a not so stellar one. Be fair and genuine in your dealings with people. I really does go a long way.

Pros

Flexibility
Good people to work with

Cons

Lack of career development
Lack of communication on corporate strategy

Advice to Senior Management

Trade big picture insights with all employees

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

Great company with great products, strong senior leadership, excellent brand, opportunities to grow depending on how aggressive you are with your career, excellent sales teams, stable - lots of cash, great HQ location.

Cons

Used to be nimble, fun place to work. But over the past 6 years, the company has taken on huge, multi-year business improvement projects that have created massive middle management that is incompetent, territorial, siloed, the result being millions of dollars are being spent with no proven result. Company spends millions on top management consultants for no conceivable return on investment. Too many boards and councils have made the company extremely slow. Great strategies but it is difficult to operationalize due to the incompetent management.

Advice to Senior Management

Shake up middle management, hold them accountable to deliver tangible results, improve teamwork, truly manage out the incompetent people, stop spending millions on management consultants - instead give employees the opportunity to play in leadership roles. Let us take the company back to the greatness it once was.

Pros

Working on good technology. The benefits are great. Love the gym. Moving around within the company is great.

Cons

A lot of variation within the company. Some BUs are very laid back others are slave driving BUs. Too much cultural differentiation even inside Cisco. I think it's the result of too many acquisitions. I changed BUs 3 times so I know.

Advice to Senior Management

Enforce a more consistent working culture inside Cisco