Pros: Hardcore technology-driven. Good facilities. Though difficult, work-life balance can be achieved. Good for experienced people.

Cons: Too many expectations. Improper compensation when compared to competitors. Employee initiatives sometimes get lost due to the sheer size of the organization. Not at all recommended for freshers.

Pros: I have no doubt there are some good groups in Cisco. The key is to get hired into just those where politics is at a minimum and there is more focus on the engineering itself. Now pray you are not involuntarily transferred to some other group due to a reorg. Working from home is not a problem, and they have very flexible work hours as long as one is delivering. The work can be interesting.

Cons: When I started at Cisco a long time ago, it was a really fun place to work. We used to be busy with actual technical projects and customer-driven features that actually made sense. My peers and manager were also good and more focused on the technical aspects than on just getting ahead in the hierarchy. Re-orgs are an integral part of Cisco, and I soon found myself in less-than-ideal company. I ended up working for worse and worse managers. There were many cliques which managers seemed to encourage. If you did the technical work expected of you and did not question the order, you were okay. In the end, visibility, how you managed upward, and politicking worked much better than actually doing the engineering work well. We sometimes buy equipment for the labs just so the budget doesn't go to waste; the equipment lies in the labs unused. Talkers are preferred over doers. Peers/leads were more interested in looking good (i.e., not being contradicted) than actually making good technical decisions.

Pros: Good exposure to work in Protocol teams. We can learn from a lot of people who have been in this area for a long time.

Cons: No clear roadmap from management. Very frequent changes. Difficult to plan on how to move up. Also, work needs to be assigned depending on grades.