Pros: Opportunity to build large-scale solutions. Some great people with good tech skills still left at Cisco. Good work-life balance.

Cons: Not a very competitive pay. Politics

Pros: Work-life balance was great, depending on the team.

Cons: Old technologies and constant restructuring/layoffs.

Pros: Stable, in the Bay Area, lots of people to interact with. It's a relatively easy-going culture with many chill employees.

Cons: Large, bureaucratic, lots of H1-B's. Just like any other huge tech corporation, this is what you'll find at Cisco. These are not huge issues, but something that gets to you over time. Not only that, the compensation, while not bad, takes a much longer time to develop into something more substantial. But in this economy, the pay is still very good. Cisco tends to have a lot of meetings every week, which also turns out to be a nuisance, since you have meetings constantly in the morning, so you stay late to do the actual work.