Cisco Systems Limited Reviews

Pros

It's a pleasure to work with bright people who care about what they do, and trying to do the right thing for customers and partners. Huge choice of different sectors of networking to work on. Most of the time the company treats its employees well, and certainly communicates well, encouraging staff to understand why the company is doing what it's doing. Working from home is possible where it fits into your business activities.

Cons

Since most of the employment opportunities in the UK are in the Sales organisation, there is limited scope for a technically-oriented individual contributor to advance without going into management. Excessive use in recent years of TelePresence (great productivity tool though) means that team building and maintaining the strong culture has taken a back seat. SEs are stretched very thinly.

Advice to Senior Management

Work on team building in person, not via TP nor webex. Fix the email overload with mature solutions, not the half-baked ones offered today. Refocus SEs around the major architectures and stop expecting them to cover everything.

Pros

-The people,made some great colleagues over the years and will miss them all.
-The offices, all are nice, modern and well appointed
-Benefits package, although the salaries aren't market-leading the overall benefits package is second to none...pensions,healthcare,insurance,stock purchase,options are all great
-The brand...did anyone ever get fired for buying Cisco ?

Cons

-Middle management decisions often poor and made without insight or employee feedback
-Duplicitous and highly suspicious redundancy process, possibly legally challengable.
-Constant removal of small benefits eg.sodas, fresh fruit, specialty coffee, home broadband etc.. all to help "save" jobs...didn't work
-Too much reliance on "collaborative" technologies, not enough allowance for face to face customer time.

Advice to Senior Management

-Be honest with your employees, actually live the values you put on the employee badge card.
-More respect for those who have been in the company for 10+ years...length of service doesn't equal staleness.

Pros

Big Company
Leading technology
Flexible Working

Cons

Unclear corporate and internal messaging
Very political
Promotions not on merit but who you know

Advice to Senior Management

Need to improve internal communication

Pros

Great People to work with

Cons

Too long to make decisions

Advice to Senior Management

Focus on execution; reward people who produce results, not the ones who do PR of what they do. In the name of collaboration don't punish the people who ask the tough questions

Pros

Relaxed environment, people are great and it is enjoyable. Cisco make great use of the technology they have (WebEx, telepresence etc) which makes working with global colleagues a breeze.

Cons

Big company to work for and you feel like just another statistic, just someone on the payroll. Training is encouraged, but only if it directly helps your department, not so much about you its about making the department money.

Advice to Senior Management

If you want loyal employees, and employees who actually WANT to come into work, then think about the individual and what we want.

Pros

* Very well known company.
* Incredible environment.
* Stability.

Cons

* Lack of info from management.
* You never know your path to growth.
* Too burocratic

Advice to Senior Management

Wake up!

Pros

work-life balance
ability to work from home
ability to share information
ability to experience latest comm technology first hand (example, telepresence system)

Cons

becoming too big, and too much like IBM
no clear career path
those who shout the loud, get advancement
no long term stratey, always rely on knee-jerk reaction

Advice to Senior Management

pay attention to good people
those who shout the loud do not necessarily the people you want to retain

Pros

Depending on your role- you can pick and choose when you come into the office. Depending on the manager you are not micro-managed.

Cons

* Endless conference calls that are a waste of time
* Now employees have to pay for their own internet connection and mobile phone at home
* No pay rises since 2000 (unless you hand in your notice then expect an incredible £5k counter offer)
* Few stock options
* Lower bonuses
* Lack of personal development- poor training opportunities
* rediculous workload (despite people saying you should balance your work: life)
* Crazy performance review process (coast the year or work yourself into the ground you will end up with the same ranking!)
* Lacks a competitive package when compared to the rest of the industry (but management will try to tell you otherwise)
* Despite employee surveys (Pulse) showing management what needs to be done- nothing will be done

Advice to Senior Management

* You need to restructure and realize that 400+ VPs do not make a company. Having individual Business Units all working in iscolation do not make "an end to end solution".
* Give up on consumer- you are not a Sony or Apple- in fact Logitech and Netgear have better products.
* realize that the company happened to be at the right place with the right products at the right time. It was not down to the excellent leadership of John Chambers.
* The rediculous boards & Council structures are toothless and powerless. They waste time and purely distract the company from what they should be doing. Er- what are we doing?!
* To the above point- what is your strategy and vision?
* 30+ "market adjacencies"- are you joking? We are going to address all of those new markets as well?
* Realize that "this isn't Kansas anymore toto"- you are delusional. Your value proposition is diluted and you cannot pin your future on your past successes. the market has moved on since the heady times of the dot com boom.
* Get out of your ivory towers once in a while and simply talk to those employees on the floor. All is not well

Pros

Established market leader in India. Good experience of channel sales as well as direct customer interaction. Huge suite of products that add to the experience. Very well recognised in the industry. Very stringent on processes and systems. Good learning opportunities.

Cons

Growth is limited from a career advancement point of view as the top is heavy with old-timers. Weekly commit on sales targets adds to continuous pressure at the workplace.

Advice to Senior Management

Increase growth options for newcomers and youngsters. Avoid frequent re-structuring. Old-timers should be assessed on their management skills so that talent does not get frustrated and quit.

Pros

When I joined Cisco, they were able to attract "type A" personalities who were generally bright, self-motivated individuals. There was unspoken but obvious competition to be he most knowledgeable in ones chosen field and the most successful both for and with their customers and partners.
Together with the reputation that Cisco had in the industry, and the strong leadership in marketing that allows Cisco to punch way above their products weight, there was always a feeling that anything was possible.
The level of employee empowerment and IT systems were incredible, and no excuses were tolerated.
Senior leadership team was strong at the time.

Cons

Stock options did not perform and were always intended to be a supplement to the relatively poor basic salary - these did not perform as projected.
Compensation was not comparable to those packages available on the San Jose campus.
The matrix management scheme was full of inexperienced middle managers, who had little or no people management skills.
Technical staff were offered no advancement beyond a certain level of income / staff grading. The only options to earn more money were to become an account manager, despite several senior directors having been home grown from the technical side of the business.
New recruits were given higher salaries to start and better grades, which obviously was a bitter pill to swallow for the more experienced and therefore more productive employees.(Cisco is a big company and it takes a couple of years to build the relationships necessary to deliver value)
Quality of new entrants to the organisation is somewhat lower now than when I was recruited.
Failure was rewarded with promotion, provided you could spin it the right way and kiss the right butts.
Nepotism was rife - not the place to work if you are a workaholic - it will bury you.

Advice to Senior Management

Cisco no longer has the pull that it had a few years ago when attracting and retaining top talent.
Product development is beginning to stagnate - partly due to a more distributed product management model and a reduction in field teams providing concise information on what the customers want and need.
Outsourcing of several functions has impacted the business.
Ensure that those within the technical community (that are capable of being commercially aware) are able to see a future for themselves within the organisation, and recognise their achievements.