I applied online. The process took 4 weeks. I interviewed at Cisco (San Jose, CA) in Mar 2012
Interview
Nice people but hard questions. one phone and one onsite with 4 people interviewed, all technical questions, no behavior questions. It took more than half a day. All are coding skill questions.
Standard panel, very simple leetcodes. reverse linked list kind of vibe s . I was literarly asked about how a linked list is structured and reversing it. there was almost no friction which I was shocked by one of the reason I did not accept
They care about your skills, rather than your background. They have a template which they provide and you got to fill that, everyone is provided a unique number. You are instructed not to disclose any of your personal details in the due course of your interview.
The interview process was two rounds. The first round was a behavioral interview. Straightforward questions, like tell me about the most technically challenging project you have worked on. The second round was a system design interview.