Cisco

Work-life balance can be pretty decent if you want it to be.

Overall compensation is on par.

Fringe benefits have been decreasing but are still there.

Very flexible work hours.

Your ability to succeed or fail at Cisco depends heavily on the relationship you have with your direct manager and what he is willing to do for you. Many of the managers are great at Cisco. The working relationship I shared with mine, however, was poor, thereby making my time at Cisco more difficult than average. In CA, lower-level engineers have been converted to hourly salaries with a decrease in compensation, which is bad.

Cisco tends to breed incompetency and complacency on projects that have been around awhile, only innovating via acquisition.

The direction they are taking in the consumer market seems very misguided.

Innovate internally and don't put so much focus on the politics of everything. Do what you're good at, and consumer design isn't one of those things.