I had a disappointing interview process for a CISCO position in Prague.

It was a very long process, with several interviews canceled or rescheduled, lasting from October until January. That's not a problem at all.

The strangest thing for me was their motivation for not selecting me. They said it was because of my part-time freelance projects, stipulating that they might affect my productivity within the company. I specifically mentioned that they take a maximum of 5 hours per week and do not affect my full-time job in any way.

For me, it is astonishing (not in a good sense) to realize that a company like CISCO would not encourage something like freelance work, which anyone is free to do in their free time, especially if it would add more value to the individual in their specific field in the end. I have learned a whole lot from those projects.

This makes me think that their work/life balance isn't very balanced.

I hope the above wasn't their true reason for not selecting me.

I had the following unexpected question:

"Will you still be working on your freelancing projects in case you join the company?"