Cisco

Good work-life balance, good benefits, very flexible work-from-home policy. At a lower level, opportunities abound since there are so many teams and so much work going on.

The good thing is that if you ever get bored with a certain role, you can always switch to a new team. That makes work always challenging, and when it's challenging, it's interesting. The downside is that most of the work going on is on proprietary technologies (in my area at least), so it may not be helpful when switching companies.

It's a big company, so you may get lost. I'm ambitious, and in such a big company, it's not easy to get to the top.

It's also, frankly, boring. Not because of the work, but because of the environment. They have ancient, drab grey cubicles, which is just off-putting to a lot of millennials in the tech industry who are used to interesting office spaces, creative and challenging environments, and good food.

Lastly, there need to be more promotions and rewards. It's common to see people leaving even though they like their job, simply because if they didn't, they wouldn't progress in their career. There are slackers and there are over-achievers, and there needs to be a better mechanism to identify them.

Adapt! Cisco can't stay the way it is. It is slow to change.

Pay more to attract top talent. Cisco has a 75th percentile policy, but honestly, for some new areas that are going to boom soon, you need the top 10%, or you'll end up with a bad product.

You're not just competing with behemoths; you're also competing with startups, and employees should view Cisco as a great option.