Pros
Company respect in the marketplace Good hands-on technical experience in certain roles Good customer wins in certain roles Solid business with repeat customers, especially in mainstream market Still many world class people in the company Some remnants of the "overcome any obstacle" culture
Cons
Cisco has become an organization where those who neither sow nor reap are now the leaders. Director after Director in non-productive infrastructure/biz process position gets created. HR is a joke. Outsourced and incompetent. It can't even carry out it's main mission of indemnifying the company from legal action. IT is a drag on the organization, not an enabler. AS sells cut-rate Offshore services at hyper-premium prices, and the market is not buying anymore. Finance are nickel-and-diming employees to death, and a major impediment to doing business. US managers are finding it incredibly hard to get jobs requisitions open, and harder to attract talent willing to overlook the shortcomings of working at Cisco in a technical role. TAC has gone from the best reason to buy Cisco, to just another cost center that has lost its way. CDO is lost in the fog of conflicting priorities and politicized leadership. Technical "crown jewels" engineers/SE's/NCE's aren't sticking around. Great sales folks are finding the market packed with better offers. Top PS/AS/TS guys and gals are leaving for immediate 50% compensation increases. Great line managers are utterly left without recognition.