#WeAreCisco Collaboration

There were times it was indirect, “Did you lose your razor?” Other times, it was very much direct, “You need to trim your sideburns; they’re too long.” But in both cases, during my pre-Cisco life, it was made clear to me that there was a certain appearance I needed in order to fit in – a corporate m…

A lot of companies talk about how they’re changing the world. But how is that taking place, and how often are the people within that company the ones participating in meaningful projects that actually create change? There are a lot of reasons I love working at Cisco, but the biggest – for me – is th…

This post was written by Cisco Intern Charlie Helms Jr. What I love most about working at Cisco is the feeling that I truly matter. Being an African-American student in computer science has many challenges, and one of them is seeing longevity in your field when you do not see many people that look…

Having been in tech for decades, with quite a few interesting and successful projects completed throughout my career, nothing has given me more satisfaction than the creation of a Natural Language Processing (NLP) Chatbot during a mentorship opportunity with high school students from local Italian s…

When I arrived at the Cisco campus in Raleigh, North Carolina I was, like most new-hires, overwhelmed with optimism and a sea of opportunity. I was also nervous about the financial risk I took on as a contracted employee and a single mother of twins.   Those nerves, however, decreased rapi…

Two years after hitting the big time, graduating from college, and landing my first job – at the first large corporate company I’ve ever worked for (Cisco!) – my view of this company has totally shifted. Especially when it comes to how we, the global teams that span from virtual corners of the world…

The initial human reaction to yet another meeting on our calendars might just be a light eye roll.  We’ve all had meetings about meetings, meetings that spawned more meetings, and – of course – the dreaded meeting you didn’t even need to be a part of.  So, this year, when I added another series to m…

On May 5, 2005 I joined the fast-growing Cisco family in Bangalore. 5/5/5 – a mathematically pleasing number, indeed. That’s right, I’m a “numbers person” and a passion of mine is teaching math as a way to give back to society, but we’re getting ahead of ourselves here. I am sure the second you saw…

I grew up at Cisco. Not many of us can call ourselves “Cisco Babies” – but I think I qualify. My mom, Nicole James, has worked for the company since 1998. I was just six years old when she started working here and I have fond memories of spending my summers hanging out in her cubicle and begging her…