I applied online. The process took 4 weeks. I interviewed at Cisco (San Jose, CA) in Nov 2016
Interview
I applied online. Was contacted about a week after. I had a webex meeting with one of the manager. About a week later I received a rejection letter ( we regret to inform you... you are not a good fit...). I thought that was it I didn't get the job fine i'll move on. BUT I received an email after another week asking me to come for an on-site interview... WHAAT??... OK.. Sure
They flew m to their HQs in San Jose. Nice city, nice hotel. The interview was divided into three parts:
Core: more like behavioral, Be honest, don't say you never made a mistake, own it. If you do not know an answer to something it's okay to tell them you don't know!
Presentation: Choose a innovation topic connected to Cisco, I did IoE
Technical: Very hard. It's as though they where trying to find your weak points. Like they keep asking you questions until they find a topic you don't know and examine your reaction to it. again its okay to say you don't know, with Cisco it works this way , with other companies like Google never give up.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
STP, VLAN, IP, Subnetting, ARP, How a packets are sent from one workstation to another, Network connectivity troubleshooting, Know the Basics!
I applied online, heard back with in a week, initial recruiter screening, manager interview, technical panel interview, then manager interview again. Technical was a mix of fundamentals and a couple of pretty challenging ones to know off the top your head.
Very casual, unorganised interview. Interviewers talked for the majority and had no idea who I was before the interview i.e. didnt review my CV or experience. Any questions seemed very odd the cuff and unrelated to the job in question.
Very thorough and detailed. Expect in depth questions and be ready with reasonings. I did find it difficult at some points but overall i did prepare well. If you remember your past experiences and concepts you won’t find it that much difficult.