I applied through an employee referral. The process took 3 days. I interviewed at Cisco in Sep 2009
Interview
The interview was set up promptly by the hiring manager. I met with several members of the team for 1:1 interviews. I had to explain everything listed on my resume. There were several situational questions so you have to be ready to respond. Overall it was a pleasant experience.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
What would you do if you're new on the team and are not sure what processes or steps to follow?
I applied through other source. The process took 3 months. I interviewed at Cisco (Irvine, CA) in Aug 2010
Interview
I found the position on Linked In and applied. It took a couple of months for them to wade through the applicants and start calling people. I received a call from a Recruiting Coordinator who was assigned to screen applicants for the Recruiter. This took about three weeks. I then got a schedule of interviews from individuals who would be my colleagues/equals. Both gentlemen were very nice and asked the standard Program Manager type questions but really were more interested in finding out who I was as a person rather than regurgitating what was on my resume. They also both were very forthright when it came to giving me a pretty clear picture of Cisco as a company, what their day to day was like, and answering my questions. They didn't throw any questions at me to "trip me up" they were just nice guys. I had two one on one interviews and then it took another couple of weeks for me to get the results. I was informed that I had made it to the final three and that I would interview with the hiring manager upon his return from an out of town trip. This interview came in another two weeks and was really just a conversation. It was clear there was alot of work to be done and he just needed a great person who could come in and do what was needed and fit in well with the team. He was very nice and knew his stuff and seemed like a great leader and person to work for.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Tell me about a time you had to negotiate conflict on a project.
I applied through an employee referral. The process took 4 weeks. I interviewed at Cisco (San Jose, CA) in Feb 2010
Interview
The interview went very well with everyone except the top decision maker, whose opinion obviously had the right to erase everyone else so as to knock me out completely, regardless all the other interviewers acknowledged that I seemed to have the strong background, skill sets, and experience to be a very valuable contributor to the company and the position. With this, I have deep doubt about having unanimous decisions as a group to determine the entire interview process. I later also heard other complaints that Cisco is not a nice company which treats their candidates very desrepectfully - they will not issue an acknowledgement if they decided not to move forward the employment with you, and no one would call you to at least thank you for the time and effort. I also experienced this personally, and disappointed that such big and prestigious company will handle this kind of thing so poorly.