Taro Logo

A good place to work

Software Engineer
Current Employee
Has worked at Cisco for 4 years
October 6, 2021
Kraków, Poland
4.0
RecommendsPositive OutlookApproves of CEO
Pros
  1. Great place to learn, with amazing experts who are eager to share their knowledge.

  2. Atmosphere of mutual respect, kindness, and openness, where you feel part of a team that has common goals.

  3. An atmosphere that promotes sharing knowledge, teaching, and learning.

  4. Managers are mostly not bosses but leaders who help you grow, who have your back, and are caring for their teams and every individual.

Cons
  1. In my location, salaries are reaaaaallly lagging behind competitors.

  2. Rotation of workers is too fast, due to lagging salaries or organizational changes. All companies should focus on retaining employees because, right now, the fastest way of getting a higher salary or promotion is to change your job/position. The costs and time of onboarding software engineers to complex projects are tremendous – it's not accounting or selling, which are everywhere rather the same. Companies should do everything not only to get the right people but also to actively encourage them to stay.

  3. Too many wannabe PMs with their PowerPoints, MBAs, and 'groundbreaking strategies,' and not enough developers.

  4. Forcing 'new strategies' by PMs or other middle-management guys who want to show how important they are, which brings only chaos.

  5. Inequality between wages by country. I don't believe that engineers in San Francisco are 10 times more efficient or work 10 times harder than people in Europe, Asia, etc.

Advice to Management
  1. Focus on developers and engineers; they are the foundation of every product or service.

  2. Too many organizational changes, which are completely unpredictable and occur in the middle of the development process.

  3. Promote experts, not showmen with their PowerPoint presentations.

  4. Retain engineers, give higher wages, and treat it as an investment—onboarding them takes a lot of time. Be the highest bidder and don't let developers leave to competitors.

  5. Equalize salaries; be competitive in places such as India or Poland.

Additional Ratings

Work/Life Balance
3.0
Culture and Values
5.0
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
5.0
Career Opportunities
5.0
Compensation and Benefits
3.0
Senior Management
4.0

Was this helpful?

Cisco Interview Experiences