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It's a big, old company

Software Engineering I Intern
Current Employee
Has worked at Cisco for 1 year
November 2, 2013
San Jose, California
4.0
Neutral OutlookApproves of CEO
Pros

They really try and find you a place you're interested in. You get what you make of it: You can make a serious contribution if you work for it (and land in the right team). They don't pressure you; they know you're still a student and don't even expect their full-time new hires to be productive at all during the amount of time you're working. They do give you opportunities; all the interns in my department presented work to a VP. They hold lots of events for you. They give you a housing stipend if you're coming out of state. Pairs you with mentor(s). Decent compensation.

Cons

They are trying to change this, but it's definitely a culture for older people.

It's huge, so there's an aspect of luck to it, but your team may be out of the office most of the time.

Cisco will lay off entire departments at a time. Some interns lost their entire team halfway through and had to be reassigned (this was not only my summer).

Traditional office environment. Again, depends on the team, but in most cases: cubes, cubes everywhere.

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