Welcome to Cisco Krakow – Celebrating our 6th Anniversary!

Next month, Cisco’s Krakow, Poland campus will celebrate its 6th anniversary! It’s Europe’s second largest Cisco office, and if you haven’t gotten a chance to visit us yet – here’s why you should!

Up first! Fun facts about Cisco Poland:

The Krakow site is home to 1400+ Cisco employees.

We are the largest hub for networking talents in the EMEAR (Europe, Middle East, Africa, Russia) region with 100+ CCIE’s.

Krakow is the #1 site for Cisco EMEAR Services – Technical Services, Advanced Services and Cloud Manages Services.

We’re big fans of diversity – 33% of our employees here are non-Polish! We have employees here from 50 different nationalities and all over the world – Ukraine, Spanish, Romania, Jordan, Hungry, Turkey, Macedonia, and Colombia just to name a few.

Visiting us for the first time, or have you just started working here? Let me take you on a tour to show you around one of the most beautiful Cisco offices.

Just arrived?

We have two buildings here (A and C) and we share our campus with four more companies, but don’t worry! You will notice Cisco immediately with our big logo on top of the buildings – we’re very hard to miss.

The first step you should take is to come on up to the 1st floor. This is where Cisco’s reception is for both buildings. In building A you will find Finance, HR, Payroll, and Employee Services. While building C is occupied by Services, IT, Network Operation Center (NOC) and Security Operation Center (SOC).

Our lovely Lobby Ambassadors are here to help you find your way.

Want to work for a global company? We’re hiring! Apply now!

How to get here?

Public transport is the best option to get to Cisco Krakow and navigate around the city 24/7. The office is located 10 minutes from the Vistula River and Schindler Fabric which is the historical museum that houses the original building in which Oscar Schindler’s Enamel factory was located. It also preserves the history of the Jewish that live in Krakow and is free to visit on Monday.

If you want to stay close to the office select Hotel Galaxy or Qubus Hotel – it’s only a 10-15 minute walk. There is also parking available right behind the office for visitors and underground parking for our employees.

What’s our Dress Code?

At Cisco we always say you can, “Be you. With us.” and we take pride in that sentiment here in Krakow. It will depend on your role, of course, but overall we don’t have a strict dress code – jeans & Crocs are usual seen throughout our office.

Looking for inspiration?

You are always welcome to visit the Thinkubator on the 3rd floor in building C. This is where our employees can come together to play, collaborate and innovate.  Our regional team can give you an overview on what projects we are working on, and how they are working with the local community on giving back activities as well. HackIT, technical sessions, digitization days and other activities are open for each employee. There is only one requirement – to be passionate about innovation and technologies.

It’s Lunch time!

You are probably hungry by now (but hopefully not hangry?)  – let’s eat!

The A canteen in building C – offers delicious Polish food, vegetarian meals, frozen yogurt (in the summer), and a new menu every day. We also have food festivals – and other cuisines on some days that may include sushi, or Hungarian and American dishes.

One canteen? No! You will find different food tracks every day of the week next to building C – Polish burgers, Indian curry, Currywurst or Mexican burrito can all be found here.

Need some fuel? How about Coffee? Our Workplace Resources team will take care of it- Italian coffee is available on each floor in our e-Caffe spaces.

And if you are still hungry after that? There is a pizza/pasta place named Papayo just 10 minutes from the office.

Don’t forget to taste local Polish favorites Zurek and Grzaniec in restaurants throughout Poland!

Now that we’ve eaten, you probably need some down time…

Take your colleagues to one of our Creativity Zones – billiards, Xbox, table games and foosball all await you here. We also offer “Chill Out Zones” on each floor complete with massage chairs, hammocks, nap pods, and a sunny patio in the summer.

Do you want to know how team building works in Krakow? Challenge yourself and your teammates with a quest room. It came to Poland from Hungry a few years ago and became quite popular. With your team you will be locked in a room and the main goal is to compete a mission and find a key in limited time. A series of puzzles and riddles will help you on your way to exit a room. Now that’s an adventure for the whole team!

Our unique Connected Poland community comes together all year round to arrange sport, health, social and giving back events too! There is always something going on, you will find all the relevant information at any e-Cafe.

Site seeing while you visit is important! Krakow is the Culture and historical center of Poland. Here’s what I would suggest seeing:

The Underground Museum is an interactive place showing our Polish history. Here you can experience & feel the atmosphere of old Krakow and even try to do things people were doing few centuries ago, for example get to know your weight in an old system of stones or enter a house of the 14th century.

The Wieliczka Salt Mine is 3 kilometers of meandering corridors and the depth of 135 meters underground, the way will take you back when the salt was the most expensive thing in Europe – a must visit!

A city tour in a small electric car will take you around the historical districts too – a great way to see many sites all at once!

Staying longer?

Krakow is located in a mountain region, only 100 km from Zakopane – the resort town in southern Poland. Take a one day trip to visit Morskie Oko, Gubalowka and the hot springs. Cisco employees like hiking in Zakopane and our Sport & Health community usually organizes one day trips to Zakopane almost every month – don’t miss it.

Now that you know what is so great about the Cisco campus in Krakow, Poland – what are you waiting for? Come visit us soon – or let us know what your favorite thing about Krakow is in the comments below!

Want to tour other Cisco sites? Find the blogs here!