software engineer

senior software engineer

project manager

shift leader

product manager

Cisco

Review here focuses on working at Cisco as a mid-level leader in IT. Most of the business units had a very different culture, so do keep that in mind as you consider this.

I worked in several different IT areas. The work is challenging, compensation can be substantial. You have a so-so base salary, but if the company and your group hits its numbers, the bonuses can be a substantial part of your compensation. RSUs on top of that, also structured to success metrics. Some wonderful people to work with in both IT and the business. Regretfully, they were outnumbered 4-1 by not so pleasant colleagues. Not a place I would want to work at again nor recommend to anyone. 

The technology aspects of the IT jobs were pretty mundane. Though there was a lot of chest-thumping about how IT was contributing to the business success, there was a very conservative approach to the technologies deployed and used within IT. Because of this, 'shadow IT' groups were common within business areas as they knew all they were going to get from IT was old tech that often was years behind where the business unit needed to be.

Senior leadership within IT was more focused on power games and gaining leverage than actually developing IT strategy that benefited the company. It was like Game of Thrones. Really! The only ones with strategy where the ones driving for their own personal domination. Constant shifting alliances and betrayals. Anyone that was decent and trying to do the right thing were either shunted off to dead-end roles or, more commonly, given the proverbial ax. 

Funding for staff was not annual. It was quarter-to-quarter! For the application side of IT anyway. I cannot recall the exact numbers, but something like 75% of staffing budget was funded by the business groups. If you did not have a set of projects lined up, it could get ugly in figuring out how to pay for a group you built up to support a business area. Felt more like a consulting firm than part of the company. 

We looked like fools to the user community at times when different factions within IT would scramble like pigs to a swill bucket when a project was funded. It would not be unusual to have parallel projects going, competing against each other. Directors and VPs would cover pet project funding by secretly paying for them out of other project budgets. For example, I had one project suddenly canceled. One of the managers came to me in a panic. Of the 30 engineers he had on the project budget, 12 of them were secretly working on another project!! 

That funding dance was a trivial example of the games that went on. I personally know of one case where a leader was being 'befriended' by another leader, thought they were an ally, but the 'friend' was actively lobbying for their removal so they could take over the area. Both these people had a long history with each other, spanning other companies, so it was particularly sad to see play out. 

Another case where a woman leader was put in a position of authority over the budgets of two male peers, who very much resented having to answer to her. Through political maneuvering, they were able to cripple a couple key areas she was responsible for. Harassment of her at staff meetings was painful to watch. Well orchestrated, coordinated, borderline illegal, but they knew where the lines were. She ended up having a nervous breakdown and took a leave, eventually leaving the company. (And she is now a very successful senior leader at SalesForce!) 

These are Director/Sr Director/VP level people I am talking about here. Not junior staff. I have worked at several large corporations and know that politics is part of the job at that level. As I said at the beginning, this was more Game of Thrones, not the typical maneuvering one has to deal with in any large corp. 

IT was a real snake pit.  

•	Over 8+ years experience working as a developer and pursue strong knowledge of SDLC with Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation and maintenance of Intranet, Internet, database-driven, client-server, building of Web based enterprise solutions and Object Oriented applications.
•	Working knowledge with SharePoint Foundation 2013 and SharePoint Services Architecture.
•	Depth experience and knowledge of Microsoft SharePoint Server 2013, 2010, MOSS 2007, SharePoint Portal Server 2003 and Windows SharePoint Services 3.0/2.0, InfoPath 2013, 2010.
•	Proficient in developing and deploying custom portals using SharePoint Portal Services 2003, MOSS 2007 and WSS 2.0/3.0. Working knowledge of SP Object model.
•	SharePoint Migration from 2003, 2007 to 2010 and 2013.
•	Expertise in developing custom Web parts, Deploying Web parts, Connection between Web parts and Web Control library templates, Site Templates and Workflows in MOSS 2007 and SPS 2003.
•	Experience of SharePoint site customization and code less workflow development using SharePoint Designer. Worked Extensively with SharePoint Designer 2007 and CSS to maintain consistency in the look and feel of the SharePoint Portal.
•	Designed and developed workflows in visual studio 2008. Experience with developing workflow activity library and in providing Workflow Solution using MOSS 2007, InfoPath 2007, and SharePoint Designer 2007.
•	Extensive experience creating Site Definition, Site Template, Lists, List Definition, Audiences, Security, Search customization, Excel Calculation Services and Single Sign On for SharePoint Services. 
•	Extensive experience as .NET Developer in designing and implementing Enterprise based Solutions using Visual Studio .NET Framework (1.1/2.0/3.0/3.5/4.0), C#.NET, ASP.NET, Web Services, SQL, ADO.NET and LINQ.
•	Experience on Java script using content editor web part in SharePoint 2007 and SharePoint 2010 and even a very broad experience on visual web parts 2013.
•	Experience SP Grid Views, Detail Views, Picture Library, Document Library and also various managements like Document Management, Records Management, User Profile Management and Web Content Management. 
•	Used CAML to query, build and customize web sites based on windows share point services.
•	Developed, and activated Solution packages (WSP Package) on the server. Extensive knowledge how to create User Permissions, Content Types and Features.
•	Experience to create BDC and BCS connecter layer of interaction between SQL Server 2008 Database and SharePoint Web portals.
•	Good Inter personnel skills and ability to work as part of a team. Exceptional ability to learn and master new technologies and to deliver outputs in short deadlines.



Technical Skills:

Microsoft Technologies	SharePoint 2013/2010, Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS) 2007,SharePoint Portal Server 2003/2001, WSS 2.0/3.0,MS SharePoint Designer 2007,Ms InfoPath 2003/2007/2010/2013, ASP.NET, C#. NET, ADO.NET, VB, Win Forms, Web Forms, Visual Web parts, XML Web Services
Web Technologies	DHTML, HTML, XHTML, XML, XSL (XSLT, XPath), XSD, CSS, JavaScript
Development Tools	Visual Studio.Net 2008 and 2010, SharePoint Designer 2010/2013, InfoPath 2007/2010/2013, Visio 2010, Visual Studio 2013, Yammer, FrontPage 2003, Visio Enterprise/2003.
Database	MS SQL Server 2000/2005/2008, MS / Access, Oracle, MySQL
Programming Languages	.NET, ASP.NET 1.1/2.0, C, C++, C#.NET, VB.NET, T-SQL, 
ADO.NET, JAVA, J2EE/ 2003/2007, WWF, Office SDK, AJAX, VBScript
Web Servers	IIS 5.0/6.0/7.0,
Reporting Tool	Dundas Dashboards, Crystal reports10.0/8.0/8.5
OS/Platforms	Windows 2008/Vista/2003/XP/2000/NT, Linux, Unix.
Applications	Microsoft Office System 2010/2007/2003, MS Project, MS Visio Dreamweaver, HomeSite, TFS.
Mail/Fax Systems	Exchange, Microsoft Outlook, SMTP

On a typical day as a TelePresence engineer you will connect your laptop to your docking station and begin to search for tickets out of a large virtual bin. If you are a night shift employee there will be no reasonably solvable tickets because the day shift will have already picked the "low-hanging fruit". You are expected to solve/ close a set number of tickets per day, which isn't always possible.

You will receive inbound calls. As a "triage" specialist, you will receive everything from quite simple fixes to descriptions of situations that seem like they are in a foreign language. And in fact, you will have many calls from other countries. Then it is your job to either solve the problem or pass it to the next tier, which will not be easy as there is always push back from the higher tiers. You are also expected to study more Cisco theory for one hour each day.

The managers were arrogant and aggressive. I watched the manager of the NOC literally prop one leg on a chair and berate an engineer in front of everyone over an issue that was a bad customer and clearly beyond the engineer's control. On day shift you will have three immediate bosses -- a tier 2 engineer, a lead, and the overall manager. On nights you will only have two until the two overlapping morning hours.

Your solutions and notes are graded. Once a week someone will come and berate your for each "mistake" that you made. You could have a correct answer, but if it is not the Cisco answer it's wrong. I was once told, "Assume the position." I found the remark and the person disgusting for saying it.

Cisco pretends to have a fun, casual workplace culture. There is a pool table, plenty of coffee and maybe a few snacks. For a couple of special occasions could have a beer or two. But it's like the beer scene in the Shawshank redemption. And it is an unspoken rule that the pool table is for the bosses only. I heard a few racist remarks, even from the highest boss. There is a lot of backbiting, sarcasm, scheming and inappropriate communication.

You will receive extensive training, but it is largely irrelevant to the real issues you will face. For example, the most common and pressing issue during the day was a situation in which a TP meeting would not start. You must fix that within a few minutes. And these are meetings for high level executives of large companies. So, there is a ridiculous amount of pressure. There is no compunction against firing people at Cisco. And the pay is low, especially considering how difficult it is. 

The most enjoyable part of the job is the camaraderie. It's like being in the military. I met some highly intelligent, funny people there. As one might imagine, the name Cisco attracts some very bright individuals.


•	Around 14 years of diversified experience in various phases of software development life cycle (SDLC).
•	Hands on experience in project life cycle including Requirement gathering and Analysis, Database design, Database development, Application development, Test, implementation & Support.
•	Experience in Oracle9i/10g/11g, MySQL, SQL Server 2000 and various database tools like Toad and Rapid SQL
•	Sound capabilities and solid experience of creating DB Objects, PL/SQL packages, Procedures, Functions, Triggers and scheduled jobs to manipulate and migrate complex data sets in Oracle Databases.
•	Experience in advanced PL/SQL constructs like Oracle supplied Packages, Nested tables, arrays, Records, Types, Dynamic SQL
•	Good experience on interfaces, Data Migration, Data Analysis and Data Conversion.
•	Experience in Query Optimization, Debugging, Tuning and improvising database performance, using the Oracle AWR, SQL Tuning Advisor, Hints, Explain plans, Bulk collects,  TKPROF, SQL Trace, SQL Profiler and Indexing etc.
•	Migrated data to and from Text file to Oracle database using SQL Loader, TOAD IMPORT/ EXPORT utilities and UTL files.
•	Solid experience in Optimizing Query Plan, Performance Tuning.
•	Involved in query level performance tuning using Explain Plan, SQL Trace and TKPROF utilities to pin point time consuming SQLs and tuned them by redefining query logic, remodeling database structure, creating indexes, using hints to suggest preferred execution plans etc.
•	Involved in database instance level performance tuning by identifying poorly written sqls that fill up the library cache, caching tables in the keep pool, analyzing wait events
•	Experienced in Replication techniques using Materialized views.
•	Excellent knowledge of Oracle internals – Memory Architecture, Processes, Files, Transactions, Sessions, Query processing
•	Excellent understanding of performance tuning – CBO, execution plans, joins, row source generators, access paths, join orders etc.
•	Have extensively used  Dynamic SQL, Global Temporary Tables, Data Base links and Partitioned  Tables/Indexes, Index organized tables, Clustered Tables, Analytical Functions, Pipelined Functions, Flashback queries
•	Well versed in OLTP Data Modeling, Data warehousing concepts
•	Working knowledge of data warehouse techniques and practices, experience including ETL processes, dimensional data modeling (Star Schema, Snow Flake Schema, FACT & Dimension Tables), OLAP
•	Knowledge of Quality Management Systems as required by ISO and CMM.
•	Possess 7+ years of work experience in Crystal Report(8,9i,XIR2), SABA and 3+ years in Informatica
•	Strong problem solving and analytical skills.
•	Capable of working under pressure and with minimum supervision.

Cisco was my dream job, and for nearly a decade that held true. I came in with no college degree (used the tuition reimbursement program to finish my degree) and with a lot to learn. Rather than see if I sank or swim, my colleagues and onsite leadership provided a nurturing environment with model leadership, lots of mentoring, and plenty of space to be autonomous. My creativity flourished, I was well recognized and rewarded, and I was challenged to grow. I loved working with every single person at our site, not just within my direct group. We designed some really cool things and didn't just cookie-cutter what everyone else was doing. I told people for years I was paid to play. Unfortunately, "leader-less" leadership at the higher levels began to trickle-down over the years with layoffs, reduced vision, frequent change-overs, tension between other teams, politics, and other things. For years, this trickle down effect seemed to take place behind a door that was held shut by good leaders, until it accumulated so much it became an ocean. Eventually the good leaders left from burnout and the higher-up leadership released a flood, leaving us to fight over life rafts. We were soon absorbed by another business unit which, should have been a great thing as we both added to where one was lacking however, behind the scenes there was an "us vs them" mentality that had been growing for many years, nurtured by "leader-less" leadership. To continue with the ocean metaphor, it was like the other team kept poking holes in our life rafts until you eventually sank (left or laid off) while at the same time dangled a life jacket in front of you and a rope to save you (if they liked you). The other team is very protective of their culture and rather than nurture it, higher-ups appeared to agitate it to the point where you felt like an outsider, regardless of what you bring to the table and the fact you're in the same company. These behaviors felt like personal attacks and created uncertainty to the point where it felt unjust. If the situations between teams were flipped, the outcome would be the same. The higher-up leaders failed us on both sides. I would do it all over again though. I met some amazing people and they taught me so many things, especially the ones at our site while Cisco, provided many valuable resources and opportunities. If you can find a team within Cisco (there's so, so many) that nurtures your innovation and motivates you, then you'll never feel like you have to go to work, you'll just get paid to play. 

•	Acted as a Liaison between Customer service team and the IT to get the requirements based on the customer needs to implement in the tool for better user experience
•	Worked closely with different stakeholders to write the procedures and processes for the requirements
•	Was involved in driving and maintaining the master prioritization list (MPL)
•	Acted as a single interface between IT development team and business stakeholders for addressing any issues
•	Involved in mentoring specific projects in application of the new SDLC based on the Waterfall and Agile Unified Process, especially from the project management, requirements and architecture perspectives.
•	Designed and reviewed the BRD(Business Requirement Document, BSD(Business Solution Document)
•	As a tool owner provided access to the tool to the requestors based on their roles
•	Involved in creating the report mock-ups for the users as a result of technical feasibility
•	Gathered Functional and Data Requirements, analyzed workflows and created Use Cases, Requirement Specifications, Report Specifications.
•	Worked on MS Office application like Outlook, Excel, Word, PowerPoint, Visio
•	Gathered metrics ,created reports and KPIs
•	Created various mockups to indicate the changes to the users as a result of the enhancements.
•	Prepared  AS IS and To be Scenarios and process flows
•	Responsible for adding the requirements in Quick win tool
•	Worked as PMO and created project plans 
•	Assisted the technical team in translating application functionality into application architecture.
•	Participated in the bug review meetings, updated requirement document as per business user feedback and changes in the functionality of the application.
•	Performing BAT(Business Acceptance testing), preparing and executing BAT test cases
•	Created User manuals, training documentation for the users
•	Uploading the BAT  test cases  in HP Quality Center and executing the test cases
•	Clarified QA team issues and reviewed test plans and test scripts developed by QA team to make sure that all requirements will be covered in scripts and tested properly.
•	Organized meetings to discuss outstanding issues with QA and developers.
•	Wrote test scripts for User Acceptance Testing (UAT).
•	Worked closely with Business Users and development team for post-production issues for documenting and resolving them.

Typical days at work were fun and exciting. I learned a lot working with Cisco Engineers. 

Although he didn't know it, my favorite engineer was my direct supervisor Kenis Butner. He was tough but fair. Very respectful and concise individual. If I learned from anyone there it would be him. He taught me how to be organised an thorough. It may have been that fact that he is former military.
My second favorite engineer was Thomas Johnson. I can say he was the only engineer that never belittled me or made me feel ignorant despite my bloopers and blunders. He was well spoken and a over all excellent and kind man. His gracefulness was so extraordinary that it seemed out of this world.   

Cisco management was exceptional however I had 2 managers since I didn't work directly for Cisco. I was a contractor so my voice was marginalized and concerns were difficult to address with my company.

Workplace culture at Cisco was excellent but as a contractor I was technically an outsider and some Cisco employees would emphasise this however I still enjoyed working with all Cisco engineers because they not only gave punches but took them too. A lot of intelligent people there so there was never really a dull moment.

The hardest part of my job was dealing with my direct coworker who also was not a direct Cisco employee but a contractor like me. This person consistently and calculatedly manipulated every situation marginalizing my voice and contributions to secure their position as lead. I literally tried every way possible to make it feel like a real team effort short of getting on my knees for this person only to be stepped on and character assassinated even further. I can truly and wholeheartedly say this person was 80% evil and 20% personable and 0% humble. 

The most enjoyable part of the job was seeing how even despite my issues I contributed to bring about positive change in quality assurance.  I was the underdog and still made a difference for the betterment of Cisco brand.

Cisco's culture is positive - the company has many employee-friendly benefits and there's a general sense of unity across functions. Like any big company, each employees experience is unique to his/her direct manager and peer team. In my years at Cisco, the majority of folks care about the company and each other. 

Working from home / remotely is widely practiced, which is a nice perk to balance your personal life, family, etc. 

Typical day unfortunately involves hours of meetings and Webex's with colleagues. Not unusual to be on calls 5+ hours a day. 

Cisco has acquired smartly many Xaas and Clould companies, to accelerate its growth and competitiveness. Services revenues have also grown well - both of these counteract declining revenues in the core Enterprise Networking area. 

Overall, working at Cisco is a positive experience, hindered by one brutal fact - there are regular layoffs, like clockwork, every 6 months, usually in the fall and spring. This is easily the worst part of working at Cisco. In my years at Cisco, these "LR's" (limited restructurings) have impacted every function. The reasons span modernizing the workforce, culling the senior folks (highly compensated), creating more vertical growth opportunities for early in career staff, and sometimes due to poor performance. Unfortunately, great people are affected, simply because of a numbers game. If you rise to Grade 13 / Director, congratulations, you now have a target on your back. Cisco has been rebalancing its organizational health for a decade, and is still top-heavy. Several colleagues have commented "I don't want to get promoted because the risk of being cut is too high". This creates a palpable sense of "am I next" within teams, and is a demoralizing condition. Depending on one's tolerance for this risk, you can either accept that you're number may come up, or operate with dread (not healthy). There is also a sense of LR fatigue teams, posing the question " will this ever end"? Unlikely.

•	Interacted with the Business users to identify the process metrics and various key dimensions and measures. Involved in the complete life cycle of the CSCORE project.
•	Analyze source systems like SJPRD, CFNPRD ,QTCPRD& BVPRD for purchase, receipts, invoice, involve hold and payments related data.
•	Based on analysis of source system present design document into client. So that client can have full utilization of data available into source system.
•	Created Mapplets, reusable transformations and used them in different mappings.
•	Created Workflows and used various tasks like Email, Event-wait and Event-raise, Timer, Scheduler, Control, Decision, Session in the workflow manager.
•	Implemented parallelism in loads by partitioning workflows using Pipeline, Round-Robin, Hash, Key Range and Pass-through partitions.
•	Validation of Informatica mappings for source compatibility due to version changes at the source.
•	Implemented daily and weekly audit process for the Claims subject area to ensure Data warehouse is matching with the source systems for critical reporting metrics.
•	Involved in writing SQL scripts, stored procedures and functions and debugging them.
•	Prepared ETL mapping Documents for every mapping and Data Migration document for smooth transfer of project from development to testing environment and then to production environment.
•	Involved in Unit testing, System testing to check whether the data loads into target are accurate, which was extracted from different source systems according to the user requirements.
•	Migrated repository objects, services and scripts from development environment to production environment. Extensive experience in troubleshooting and solving migration issues and production issues.
•	Coordinate with the client team, and present on a weekly basis to the client the progress and issues related to the project.
•	Actively involved in production support. Implemented fixes/solutions to issues/tickets raised by user community.
•	Reviewed Informatica mappings and test cases before delivering to Client.

From my experience, there are two main items to keep in mind:

1. Your manager is going to have a lot to do with your comfort at Cisco.  I happened to love both of my managers but your mileage here may vary.  There is no single management school or track that managers at Cisco go on so you can get a fantastic manager or a terrible one and it has nothing to do with Cisco.

2. Generally the benefits are better and the pay is better at Cisco.  Also, you can work remotely.  This covers up for a lot of other things missing from other companies.  This is *not* a place that does perks like ergonomic desks or company parties.


After that, the most important aspect of my work here is that you are not being babysat.  If you are not a self-starter who self-manages, it's hard to function here.  This was both good and bad:

Good: You are being treated like a professional and an adult.  You work on your own project on your own time and you can come in at 4 in the morning -- they don't seem to care.  You can also generally work remotely from home, a coffee shop, or the North Atlantic.  It's getting things done not getting-things-done-while-wearing-the-correct-outfit.

Bad: It's hard to tell what's going on behind the scenes, with leadership, even in the cube next to yours.  There's a hardcore engineer-style DIY culture here where you're supposed to just figure it out.  That can be very frustrating if you need to get something done and don't know how or who handles it.  It's also easy to go a little crazy when you don't know whether your project is going well or poorly.

Make a big point to read up on how to manage your own projects and how to manage your manager.


Finally, just a note that some processes that other companies have down and clear are totally unknown at Cisco.  I've gotten stuck in various reasonably common business tasks (submit expense report, hire a contractor) that turned into confusing, multi-week nightmares because nobody knew what was going on and nobody ever wrote anything down.  Or if they did, it was hidden by Cisco moving to a new content platform every 12 months (Ciscopedia -> web -> WebEx -> Jive -> etc.).

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Software engineer 91 salaries reported	$149,542 per year
Senior software engineer 24 salaries reported	$166,435 per year
Project manager 30 salaries reported	$116,070 per year
Shift leader 6 salaries reported	$192,333 per year
Product manager 11 salaries reported	$184,200 per year

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