Cisco reviews

Apparently there is some sort of rule that the Cisco manager you report to cannot provide any type of feedback. My manager seemed to be great. Every time we met on the phone, he acted as if all was well. He never provided any feedback or coaching. He was very friendly. I was offered a full time position many times, but had to turn it down because the pay was nothing short of abysmal. Then, a very hostile customer complained about me for a rather invalid reason. My project manager and team had my back and were in my corner. They all explained to my manager that I was not at fault. Suddenly, my contract was terminated. No explanation, no communication. I tried to talk to him just to understand, but he completely cut me off and wouldn't talk to me. If you are thinking about contracting at Cisco, then I strongly caution you. If you are perfect, then all will be well. If you do anything that causes the slightest bit of concern, then your contract will be terminated. They won't warn you, they won't talk to you, they'll just give you the ax. There is a very stark difference between contractors ("Red Badges") and employees ("Blue Badges"). Contractors get a paycheck and absolutely nothing else. That is to be expected in many situations, but I wanted to make it clear for those less experienced in contracting.

Pay is pretty low compared to market standards. They don't seem to normalize salaries. New campus hires are paid more than Software Engineer-II (3-4 yr exp band) annual increments are usually around 10% and on promotion around 5-10%.