Cisco

1. Provides university tuition assistance.
2. Flexible work hours.
3. Has invested in lots of software tools and infrastructure, making it a good place to self-learn quite a few new technologies.
4. The top management tries to spread the gospel of fair play and fairness among the lower rungs, but the middle-level management from Director down is really very mediocre.

1. A hub center of political activity.

2. Most engineers are of very mediocre quality – could do with a better hiring process.

3. Very mediocre directors and managers. Most of them are past retirement age and don't bring in any value.

4. It's who you know that matters more than what you know when it comes to career growth.

5. Typical culture of slavery – a very concentrated presence of a particular ethnic community within all projects, not much diversity.

6. Strictly not recommended as an exciting workplace.

Get rid of these multi-tiered management. Bring directors out from behind their glass doors to talk to technologists directly. Get rid of middle-level management.

Cisco is at least 5 years behind the industry in terms of its services implementation. I advise bringing in hardcore technologists and getting rid of managers and old architects who do not deliver world-class products.