I am going to be graduating from University soon in New York and I have been gettingan early look at employers at career fairs. I have been recruited for interviews by several companies and I was wondering if anyone has an idea of where I can find free information/reviews on employers from employees.
The company I have applied for is Cisco Systems as an ASR (Associate Sales Represenative).
I just am a little worried about getting a job and finding out it’s got some really bad employee experience that is readily available for me to see before I accept.
Go to your college library. There is a book published every year giving “official” information on companies, but I don’t know what’s it called (I’m assuming you’re in the US of A).
Check out the company’s webpage. Take what they say, then take out 99% of the sugar.
The resources I know for employees to comment on their employers are in Spain, but if it helps any, my sister-in-law’s cousin has worked for Cisco Spain (he’s some sort of sysadmin) for five years and he’s pretty happy. Works helluva long hours but that seems to be the main drag. He had a dumb boss for a while but that can happen anywhere, the current one is ok.
There are a lot of blogs and semi-underground Yahoo groups used by employees of the larger companies. Usually the posters are very disgruntled so things are skewed a lot. It will give you a worst case point of view and, at least for me, are an entertaining read.
I know some people who work at Cisco and have given a talk there. It seems like a pretty good place. I was involved with the enginners in San Jose, so I have no idea of how they treat salespeople.
Cisco has a deal with Verizon I think so Cisco employees get free wireless at just about every airport. That sounds like a company who values productivity over penny pinching.
I wouldn’t especially believe the polls, and you’ll get different stories in different locations and different divisions. Your boss, and your bosses boss, has far more to do with how happy you’ll be than any general list of benefits.
