Cisco Systems Reviews

Pros

A lot of help and advice around
Training/certifications to keep your skills up
Great coworkers

Cons

Management chain can play politics
Tough to see big picture sometimes

Pros

Flexible work hours, Cisco brand name, ability to move around within the company

Cons

No career growth, very competitive culture (specially in the BU world), too many instated policies limiting your mobility from a career perspective.

Advice to Senior Management

Continue consolidating, simplifying the partner Cisco relationship and internal processes to enable faster TTM and beat the competition.

 Identify/retain talent and eliminate all ridiculous policies instated disabling your employees from growing.

Pros

good hands on with latest technology
learning opportunities
experience
stable company
reputation of Cisco
working with some highly skilled individuals

Cons

corporate structure and ideology - you either accept it or hate it
san jose is a dullest place on earth

Advice to Senior Management

More focus on your core products and technologies
Better marketing
Hire young people, Cisco is pretty old at it's core

Pros

* Working from home available with most managers

Cons

* Promotions/recognitions happens to small circle of 'insiders'. Even though this might be case in many other companies, in cisco - the criteria/condition needed to getting in that circle is neither clear nor transparent.
* Absolutely clueless management - Engineering as well as Personnel wise. Both middle (sr. mgr) and upper middle (director/vp)
* salary increase - Forget about getting even an inflation adjustment. Effectively, your salary (in real terms) keeps reducing.
* Huge crowd in which you will get lost. Diversity Issue.

Advice to Senior Management

None

Pros

Work from home, can leave on time, lots of social activities, a work and personal life balance, very structured company.

Cons

Projects involve way too many people which resulted inefficiency. Take too long to agree on solution and sign off documents.

Pros

Large, technology, innovative, new ideas

Cons

Political, errorgant, hard to get around, little leadership development

Pros

high pay (especially in years when profit-sharing bonus is high)

Cons

many groups are highly political
lots of deadwood
bureaucratic

Pros

This was a geat job. Everyone was very nice and helpful. I learned a lot but was always very busy.

Cons

There was a lot of pressure to perform very well. Also the hours were sometimes too long for me to handle.

Advice to Senior Management

My advice to the management is to just be kind to your employees- but they already did that. Everyone one was great

Pros

The flexibility to work from home.
Worked with some really talented people.
Lots of training/education
Good pay for contractors

Cons

As a contractor - I observed a lot of office politics! Communications group puts way to many senseless ppt presentations together and redundant forms of communication. Not even sure if people are listening or awake during large webex meetings - dead silence during Q&A's. I was never een sure what exec management team actually did. For those that have worked there a long time, which seemed like alot of people, they are stuck in a rut and aren't open to anything new and do it they way it's always been done. The virtuall office (McCarthy Ranch) can't really be utilized by contractors - squatters take over the spaces that are supposed to be open to all.

Advice to Senior Management

With so many employees/contractors working offsite, need to somehow encourage more of a sense of community. From what I heard, Cisco used to have that team spirit. Hire more people as opposed to so many contractors.

Pros

Company has pot of cash;

Cons

Too much politics in the environment; Favors offshore model and takes away US jobs;

Advice to Senior Management

Please stop moving Jobs outside USA;