Just Interviewed at Cisco...
Some Glassdoor comments scared me, I was expecting positive stuff over there (I know people here are p-ss-d so I am interpreting it as such)...
I recently graduated, I really need a job... I was pretty excited to finally get and opportunity to interview.
So, I need a job, if I get an offer should I take it?
No they have stressful layoffs every single year, no matter if you’re an outstanding employee or not. No employee loyalty!
Get your experience and make your money, as much as you can and get out. There are much better companies to work for and grow with, other than Cisco Do not depend on this company. Every year now they have some sort of force reduction (Layoff) and it will happen to you. Do not get into debt, have a good emergency fund and join the FIRE movement.
my wife works in the r&d side of a core engineering field. having interacted with her profs at university and also many high level people from non-sw fields I can say safely, the top guys in such fields are all very hands on and know the ins and outs of their craft even dept heads/vp/gm level. I assume same is case of well run sw cos like arista or FANG.
in csco we have legions of people who came in as managers, forgot how coding looks like, and just play around with bugs and budgets.
at various points all the good managers and directors seem to have left cisco or been pushed out, what is left are mostly the dregs who cannot clear even cisco's own technical interview rounds.
they can only show loyalty to their reporting chain and try to compensate for lack of ideas/quality by being online as many hours as they can and pouncing on mails with " +1 +(engr_name) can you pls look into this on priority" - none can code a single line or solve a single issue.
when a large co has such a mediocre managerial talent it affects morale and technical talent badly. its starting to have real consequences.
you must be mediocre or desperate
any talented person would be at a startup or AppleGoogleFacebook
you are in the right place at at the right time, be a sponge, listen to what mentors say, dont be discouraged by the politics or backstabbing, people do bad things under stress. I joined out of college, best decision ever, but being older in my career, waiting for the bullet to back of head, just normal cycle at cisco but your future is bright, just get out once you feel the reaper.
Cisco is a good foot in the door if you are in the sales department. The other organizations are a complete mess. After 10 years of layoffs and outsourcing, the remaining employees are either extremely corrupt or incompetent.
OP You’re coming to a site where everyone has a negative bias to begin with so you’re not going to hear all great things. With that said, no matter where you go you’ll find negative things and people. Cisco is a good foot in the door. You’ll learn a lot here.
If you are in dire straits then join the company but keep looking out even after joining. This is not the right place unless you are sales. Cisco is a sales company that grows by acquisition. Plus most of the managers in India are bad and incompetent who are mostly at the helm of Cisco.
I would not let my kid do it - there are other options
Take everything you read on the net with a huge grain of salt - here is my #gold advice...
This is a good company but it has it's own issues. Every company does.
I have almost 35 years of experience and my rule of thumb is this: if a company grows, everyone is happy, positions open up, you always need more people and people are generally appreciated.
As the growth stalls, issues start to surface, it becomes hard to move up, people become tense. Your maneuvering space shrinks.
Once the company starts to shrink, it's outright painful and every day is just a sh--show. Infighting starts, backstabbing becomes rampant, etc.
It's up to you to figure where where we are today... Growth, Flat, Shrinking???