Cisco

• Looks great on a resume; employers love to hire ex-Cisco employees.
• Great benefits.
• Many co-workers are smart; some are very smart indeed!
• Much of the employee education is top-notch.
• Flexible work hours and work-remote policies.

• A bad manager can really make things terrible, and there isn't really anything you can do about it. Bad managers tend to stay in place indefinitely, unless they quit.
• Salary is generally below-par.
• The stock price has been flat, so options and ESPP aren't worth much.
• Major changes in direction come as a surprise to rank-and-file employees. Your business unit could be shut down at any time, and you could wind up moving somewhere completely unrelated.
• A very large organization generally means lots of process and lots of red tape.
• Cisco has apparently started doing annual layoffs, dumping 10%-20% of their employees each time. Morale problems are endemic in part as a result of this.

Work on employee morale. Frequent changes of direction are not helpful, nor is the constant looming threat of getting sacked. Promote innovation and risk-taking, rather than buying innovation. Come up with some way to deal with poor managers.