Cisco

They had a good Medical-Dental-Vision plan. I also had an opportunity to take courses at Stanford, which helped me in my career.

They had a mass layoff in 2001. They were also trimming the bottom 10% for many years after 2001.

If you happened to do your job and work hard, and your manager didn't like you for any reason, then managers could abuse power, and you would end up on the list for the next layoff.

My engineering team was technically okay, but I have seen stronger teams. The ASIC methodology was not good enough, and I found it difficult to fix as my manager was not open to improvement.

There was little support for internal IP, although the usage of internal IP was encouraged. I managed to re-engineer and manage to do my job, but found the process to be inefficient.

Even junior engineers are trained to think more in terms of business, compared with other places which are engineering-focused. Cisco is a combination of startups, and that's a factor in their internal politics.

I also had to log in and work on weekends because my manager did the same.

To build internal feedback, there is a disconnect between what is happening in the engineering group and what managers are reporting to a higher level.

This can even be an HR business to clean up the house, having the right people in the right seats in management positions.