The hiring process at Cisco takes an average of 46 days when considering 2 user submitted interviews across all job titles. Candidates applying for CSM had the quickest hiring process (on average 1 day), whereas Intern Field Sales roles had the slowest hiring process (on average 90 days).
The process took 1 day. I interviewed at Cisco in Jan 2012
Interview
Started off with the an overview of the area of work that is to be done for the position. Goes onto an assortment of personality questions followed by a test run for bug finding. Switches off midway to another interviewer that refines the initial description of the area of work. Interview turns into a casual chat.
I applied through college or university. The process took 4 weeks. I interviewed at Cisco in Oct 2011
Interview
I had one on campus interview which constituted of basic questions regarding multiple process handling, race conditions, use of Montiors in multi threaded programming.
Next interview consisted of 1-1 interview where I was asked about my courses and aptitude questions.
Also, there were questions related to networking basics and my past projects and experience.
I applied through a recruiter. The process took 4 weeks. I interviewed at Cisco (Milpitas, CA) in Oct 2010
Interview
Had an initial phone screen that was very much like a consulting interview (market sizing, etc). 30 days later I was contacted again to interview for a different position. Only one round with 5 interviews including sales, engineering, but mostly product managers. One group interview where I presented a business problem to the PM leadership. The interview questions consisted of grilling on the product domain I would be working in (even though I had little background in it -- good thing i did my research), brainteasers (what's the TAM for dryers in the US), and how to sell questions ("sell me something in the room").