Pros
- excellent people, just about everyone was incredible education etc. but also you still have some very well respected industry experts that still provide excellent support to the BU's etc. - some pockets of excellent teamwork are yielding excellent technology achievements - very well paid (base salary and bonus) - culture of excellence, remember though that outside of Cisco you'll probably be regarded as smarter than you were inside of Cisco - [opinion] I don't buy the "asian/indian culture" crap either I see in these pages, Cisco was the most diverse company I have ever worked for that is for sure, but it was an honour to work with each and every person regardless of where they came from, the hurdles some of these folks had to overcome were plain awe inspiring, they deserve every chance they make for themselves. That they bring with them a sense of urgency and serious dedication and yes incredible family values too (sounds like 30-50's USA doesn't it?) is something to learn from and not be intimidated by. Doubtless, they are going places, be flat footed if you want or take some of that energy and help yourself too. That there was perhaps a culture clash is not the fault of the people, it is a lack of planning on HR's part to do anything at all to help harness and focus the work force properly and set some sincere expectations correctly.
Cons
- Cisco stock has been mostly flat for last 8-9 years, seen Apple or Google lately? If you've worked for Cisco you know how much this can affect your total compensation package compared to peers especially given how hard people work at Cisco, the company is apparently moving more towards cash incentives and compensations but these are instantly swallowed by taxes at marginal rates and more importantly the golden handcuffs are loosening their grip as this policy continues and rank and file employees are forced to option stocks at nearly worthless values. -IMHO, the theory that higher stock prices yields happier employees still holds true, my newer theory (and it is only a theory) now is that the stock has been flat for so long that morale is now stuck (SIA), when it loosens up again I fear a large external routing table update into other startups and other ventures - lots of excellent engineering innovation in hardware and software, where's the growth and market share? the excellent work has been done, it would be nice if the company could capitalize no? - HR is spread mighty thin into DIY web 2.0 employee services model with perfect HR efficiency, it would be nice if the human resource was actually accounted for whilst sizing up probably some of the world's most complex engineering projects but I digress - culture of excellence, when you work that hard and with everyone else doing the same thing, it is easy to start thinking you are not measuring up anymore even though you are a star relative to a lot of other company standards (this creates unnecessary stress when practically everyone is a masters of this, triple CCIE in that and everyone wants to progress and there is almost no HR presence.) -Sometimes I felt that a lot of folks were way too overqualified for a lot of positions, lower tiers of educated people would probably yield more willingness to do certain functions correctly and for longer periods of time and at cheaper salaries - like testing - but without the need to lobby the management team and get out of their positions as quickly as humanly possible, this is throw away work that first level managers don't need.
