Cisco

Full-time employees are more than happy to help; they seem to appreciate young blood in the office.

Very flexible work hours/days; if you have to miss a day or two, managers are very flexible.

Company makes an honest effort to socialize you with fellow interns.

Pay is nothing to write home about, at least for an internship in the Bay Area.

Intern events are probably the only significant socializing you'll ever do; most full-timers only come into work and then immediately go home.

Projects are typically a very small, minute component in an otherwise enormous system; there's no "cool factor," and the skills you learn don't seem to be transferable.

Projects can also be mind-numbing, such as writing a series of JUnit tests or making several SQL calls to a server.

There's really nothing a lone manager or set of managers can do to remedy my complaints.

While Cisco has pretty great full-time benefits and a very flexible work-life balance, the culture lends itself to employees being isolated and non-social. It's a great company to work for if you have a family, but for young people looking to build relationships with fellow employees, it's subpar.