Pros: Good benefits, good exposure to cutting-edge technologies.

Cons: Frequent layoffs, re-orgs, manager not forthright about career growth.

Pros: 1. Big company, has mature product lines, lot of people for a task, relatively peaceful, easy to maintain work-life balance. 2. Global company has offices throughout the world, encourages cross-office movement for performing employees.

Cons: 1) Getting a challenging work can be a tough task. 2) You need to be vocal about things, else you may go unnoticed. 3) Since it's a mature company, climbing the people ladder can be a daunting task.

Pros: Cisco is a great place for work/life balance. I would highly recommend Cisco for working moms. There is the flexibility of working from home if need be. The best thing is people do not abuse that system. You have access to a wealth of information: technical talks, seminars, and classes to enhance technical knowledge. There are also leadership classes to hone leadership skills. Extensive use of IT tools and the web has made all the processes online and very seamless. I personally believe the salary, compensation, and benefits are at par with the valley companies. Overall, it's a great place to have fun and work at the same time.

Cons: One of the biggest complaints I have against Cisco is its career development plan and implementation for employees. The ePM every year talks about growth and career plans, but in reality, management is always driven by very near-term goals and not long-term vision. As a result, all career development plans of individual contributors do not go anywhere. Next year, the ePM comes, and the story repeats. There is not much functional rotation either. It's very hard to convince a Level 1/2 manager why I would want to move from his/her group and go to another group to do something else. Instead of encouraging the individual's passion to do something of his/her interest in another group, the manager is worried about shrinking the empire if an employee is lost to another group.