Work Experience Review

We spent a total of 4 days at Cisco, two of these 4 days were in our individual assigned departments and the other two we were all together as one big group doing activities. In the activities, we did both a Robot Sumo activity which involved creating and fighting our robots, and a Dragons Den activity in which we had to come up with a new idea or even build on an existing one with the theme of Safety and incorporating IoT (Internet of Things).

I didn't gain any qualifications, however I did learn some new skills. These involved: team working as we had to work well in teams for all the activities we did together as a group; networking, as we spent much time with our professionals in the chosen or assigned departments, in my case IT. I also learnt technical knowledge, as we learnt much about Agile Methodology and Software Development and many other roles within Cisco's Social Collaboration Team.

I enjoyed the programme very much, it was such an amazing experience and my only wish is that it lasted longer. The application process was simple and easy, and the programme was constantly interactive and engaging. Everyone learnt new things and we especially found out a lot about real life work, which is very different to learning of things in theory.

I felt quite valued because although we weren't there long enough to be able to get properly involved in any projects or tasks et., we were allowed to sit in on meetings like the Daily Scrum and Sprint Retrospective and a Sprint Planning meeting and we were treated very well by our department and team.

The programme was very well organised and structured, everyone knew what was going on at all times, and we even received a breakdown by every half an hour for the days spent with our Department, so there was no point at which we were clueless or unsure as to what we should have been doing or where we should have been.

We received quite a lot of support from our professionals, whenever we had a problem or question they were always ready to listen and give the best possible answers, even if that meant repeating themselves or re explaining a topic or problem in another way. They were all generally very good at listening and presenting and helping us out where necessary.

We were not present for long enough to have to receive support from an 'employer' however the short time in which we did stay showed us that if we needed any help or we had any issue, that multiple people in a variety of departments or areas would have been happy to help us out.

We were not paid for the work experience as it was such a short week, however people who had to travel longer distances were offered support in terms of their travel costs and their actual journey to and from the various locations (e.g. Central London, Reading). It was not necessary for the time of our duration to have been paid.

We took part in a departmental team social event one of the lunchtimes which we spent with the Social Collaboration team, and that was a great experience as they made us feel valued and an important part of the group. There was not much time for any additional activities due to the short length of the Work Experience programme, but if it was longer we may have had the opportunity to take part in more.

Yes

Cisco is so lively and exciting and inviting, unlike the commonly held misconception of such a big, global, professional company. The people are down to earth and very easy to talk to, and at Cisco it seems that they regard interpersonal skills and team working abilities over raw academics, which makes the experience much more relaxed.

Go for it! Take all the opportunities you can, apply to all the roles you can, try new things and meet new people because it will all be worth it. Additionally, it just looks very good to have such a highly regarded company on your CV, since Cisco is such a big name, especially in the world of technology.