Cisco

One gets a great work-life balance. It's a good place for women employees.

The senior management has trusted few lieutenants, mostly old-timers that they always pull in when new development work comes. They are the ones who tend to be critical and are rewarded the most in terms of salaries and stock options, etc. On every product launch, the seed team will be deployed to deliver.

No matter the amount of hard work, for lateral hires, getting to these elite few is not possible, at least in an ethical manner. Thus, the majority of lateral hires end up doing minor enhancements and bug fixes. Their career growth is thus limited. Most of them will end up cleaning up the mess created by these so-called lieutenants.

HR is totally non-functional; 90% of the team doesn't even know who the HR is. They do nothing to prevent such practices. They are confined to framing policies for leaves, etc.