Cisco

Friendly workplace with people genuinely interested in helping each other and listening to the customers' needs. Open-door policy and very frugal culture.

Work-life balance is possible when working on a stable, mature business unit.

Good place if you want to understand how to sell at scale; the sales workforce is impressive. Opportunities to learn some industry trends and hear customers' opinions if connected with the right marketing persons.

Very limited career development opportunities. Cisco now emphasizes a policy of career mobility, meaning that you are encouraged to look for opportunities within the company as a means to compensate for lack of growth.

Management now uses this policy to avoid any meaningful discussions under the excuse that if you don't like something in your job, then you are free to find something elsewhere (instead of addressing the job concerns).

Promotions are driven by the revenue importance of the product you work on. If you work on a non-established, emerging product, then forget about advancing your career (Senior management will use those emerging projects in their favor to get visibility and pitch innovations, though).

In certain units, the job recognition is severely distorted: management and teams raise a problem, later solve it, then become the hero for resolving something that they must have avoided in the first place with proper thinking. Many managers have become masters at playing this game, and Sr. mgmt plays along. On the other hand, teams who silently and consistently execute well may not get any visibility or recognition.

The company is no longer what it used to be 10 years ago. It has become a mature workplace with internal politics and limited employee growth. Great place to start a career and then go to a startup or another company genuinely interested in product innovations with true meritocracy.

Get truly interested in your employees' development.