Cisco

As an intern, I hear a lot of things from other interns all over the company. I think we all agree that Cisco's New Hire Network does a great job of getting us settled in and offering workshops with advice on making the most of our time here. The administrative tasks during the first few weeks were very fluid for such a large company. I was very impressed.

San Jose is a great place to live. I love the scenery, the traffic (or lack thereof), the very accessible and omnipresent public transportation (which Cisco pays for), and, of course, the California weather. Most of the interns, as well as many of the full-time employees, live in an apartment community located in the middle of Cisco's campus. Every morning, I walk to the nearest Cisco building and take the campus shuttle to my building. Best commute ever.

Before I got here, I was afraid that I would end up doing menial tasks like getting people coffee, even though Cisco and every other company I applied to assured us that would not be the case. I was given a couple of small projects at first; however, I didn't feel like I was contributing enough, so I asked for something else, and my manager quickly found a bigger project for me! :) The project my particular group is working on has a life cycle of about four months, so I'm really excited that I get to see most of it!

I can't say much about work/life balance for full-time employees, but we interns are having the time of our lives here. We have something planned almost every night (e.g., free salsa lessons on Thursdays down in Japantown), and I've visited many of my CS friends at other companies in Silicon Valley. If anything, there's more of a life/sleep balance issue.

I cannot believe "frugality" is so strongly emphasized. Is it really necessary?

The salary is great compared to that of other engineering internships, but college students tend to rank companies by how much they can afford to pay their interns.

Other reviews have advised hiring more young folks, but it's hard to achieve the same appeal to college students as brand name companies like Facebook, since Cisco does not deal with the public so directly. Also, I realize that Cisco has only started taking interns fairly recently.

So keep doing what you're doing at the colleges, and never underestimate the power of nifty and original freebies at the career fair, well-attended information sessions, and, of course, a high salary.