Pros
Wow! It really looks like the recent layoffs and expense reduction measures at Cisco have brought out the discontented lot. Unfortunately, that seems true of many comments left on blogs or user review sites, where the majority of posts often serve as an outlet for those who aren't happy. I have been guilty of that as well, only posting a review when I was really disappointed, rather than when I had an Ok experience. I'm not an old timer..I have been with Cisco for the past 5 years and lucky to have a good manager . Yes, things in the last two years have gone downhill in terms of cutbacks. Even in Sales, all non-customer travel was cut. As late as 2007, you could just book a flight and travel without manager authorization. None of that was going to survive the recession and unfortunately neither did the free sodas. The layoffs( or re-structuring as management would like to call them because they were less than 5% of the employee base) didn't help either. Having said that, at least from my perspective Cisco still has quite a few redeeming qualities.All the negative reviews don't explain how Cisco was in Fortune's Top 10 best companies to work for last year and is still at number 16 this year - after all the cuts. So, my comparison point might be different, but I think its not just the above average compensation package that includes generous 401(K) matches,annual bonuses, option grants given annually (unfortunately,those are history - the last one I got was in 2007 and they are very much under water). It's also the quality of people one interacts with (and yes, some of them were managers), the tremendous number of opportunities to move internally and take on new assignments. Also, for sales professionals especially, Cisco's market leadership usually translates to exposure to premium accounts and high commissions. There's a big emphasis on work-life balance and its best exemplified by the 4 weeks of vacation that is standard for all employees...that is a very rare thing. Webex meetings are the norm for most internal meetings, so there's great flexibility when it comes to working from home or any other location. There's also a strong culture of giving back that I found very commendable. Volunteering is highly encouraged and Cisco matches all individual charitable contributions up to a $1000 per year. This doesn't include their annual holiday fund-raising effort where all contributions are effectively tripled.
Cons
Like most big companies, Cisco has its share of problems. John Chambers has created a very Sales centric culture based on M&A, rather than focusing on engineering innovation. Loyalty is punished when spin-offs are re-acquired for high valuations. Overall, if you have pre-2000 stock options or are in Sales, life is good, but I'm not sure I can say the same thing for IT or Engineering. The culture there tends to be very bureaucratic with a fair number of folks who are only interested in maintaining status quo. In the IT groups, there's an undue emphasis on costs and much of the work has been outsourced which turns out to be quite unproductive. My interaction with Sales IT left much to be desired and even friends working there want to move out of those groups. Just as engineers in the Business units hope that an evening MBA will free them from the confines of the engineering organization. Cisco's stock pool being very diluted, there's not much upside when it comes to appreciation. Career growth and chances of promotion depends to a large extent on how much support you get from your manager and how many of his/her peers you influence, so you really have to manage upwards, besides doing the best job you can and then hope that its enough.