Cisco

Flexibility. This job is very flexible. Work-life balance is extraordinary, to the point where most of us work 15 hours a week or less, or from the car. Health and 401k benefits are great.

Diversity and Inclusion is the highest priority in the company. Some might see this as a pro, but let me explain.

Unqualified people have been shuffled around the company into leadership roles during and after COVID. Some have grown to be successful, while many have failed completely. This cascades and causes multiple leadership failures down to the engineers. Many great engineers have left due to the failures of our recently promoted leadership.

ESG is such a high focus that our products are failing simple quality checks. We have had many customers leave Cisco products for Palo Alto or other vendors simply because our products are garbage now, and the TAC support is atrocious.

Be prepared for an annual layoff here. Generally, every year there is a "fat trimming" movement where useless roles are removed, allowing the folks to transfer to other parts of the company, where they are utterly useless.

Customer Experience is a nightmare, where the customer is put second and profits are put first. CX BCS contracts are the worst thing for delivery – nonsense deliverables that the customer does not have any desire for. It's purely a money grab by Cisco.

Focus on the business and the technology. Avoid focusing on political pushes, such as ESG and DEI, as this is driving away solid engineers who want to focus on the tech and want nothing to do with a political battle.