Very bad experience with Cisco. I am really disappointed and I would have never expected that a company with such reputation would treat me that way. So my story began in October 2019 when I received a message on LinkedIn from a Cisco HR manager, asking if I might be interested in a 6 months legal internship at their offices in my country. I was thrilled because I hadn’t even applied for the position and someone from the company was inviting me to the selection process! So, a week later, I went to their HQ and went through my job interview. The atmosphere was relaxed and the lawyer was very nice to me. I found the job interview a bit difficult and technical but that’s absolutely normal for the position (legal). It lasted more or less one hour and at the end Cisco’s lawyer told me that my overall feedback from him, was positive. He added that I would have been called back “as soon as possible” so I happily went back home. A couple of weeks passed without hearing from them so I started to think “ok maybe I misunderstood and they decided I won’t be good for the position”. After almost one month, my phone rang and it was the same lawyer asking me where I had been all that time because they hadn’t no longer heard from me. I kindly answered that I was actually waiting them to tell me whether I officially passed the first step. He realised something went wrong with HR and communication within various departments so he immediately apologised and confirmed the feedback was positive so I would take the next interview within a few days. Mistakes can of course happen so I was very relaxed and confident for the next step. However, the day after, I surprisingly received an automated email saying “Thank you for taking the time in applying at Cisco. While we thank you for your interest in us, we won’t move forward with your this time.” and all the stuff you read when you do not get selected for a job. How was that possible? I spoke on the phone with the hiring lawyer just the day before and he confirmed I was going through the next step. I clearly remember it was a Thursday and I thought “it must be another mistake.” Nobody called or texted me on Friday so the next Monday I called back (fearing I was becoming a bit annoying) to ask for clarifications. They confirmed it was a server’s mistake (surprising to hear that from a Communication Tech Giant) and they apologised once again. Within a week I had the second job interview with a manager from another country through Cisco WebEx. Everything went fine, she was extremely nice and the interview was more motivational rather than technical. She literally said that the hiring lawyer of my country spoke “highly of me” and that her impression/feedback on me would have been positive. She spontaneously added that she would have called me back to confirm “tonight or at latest, next week”. It was mid-December and from that moment, Cisco disappeared.
At the end of January I randomly found on LinkedIn that they had reopened the same job position that was almost promised to me! I got angry and frustrated but I decided to wait a little longer, hoping once again that they would pop out somewhen but I was wrong. So in mid-February I emailed the hiring lawyer saying that I was kindly waiting a final response and that I needed their confirmation in order to set out the internship’s documents with my university. He answered on iMessage (weird from a person I barely knew tbh) saying that he would have called me the following day but he didn’t. I waited another week till he finally called back and frankly he sounded a bit embarrassed in saying that, literally, I was “the best candidate between the ones selected”, that the hiring process was not over BUT that for this time they were going for someone with more experience.
 Let me recap it for the sake of clarity: - Cisco contacted me for a job I was interested but for which I had not applied - I passed the two steps in order to be hired and the two selectors both confirmed it - I waited 4 months and received no final feedback till I insisted quite a few times - last but not least, I was NOT HIRED though I was the BEST CANDIDATE (they said it). How can you be the best candidate and not get hired in the end? It turned out they finally hired a very talented person I know (I’m glad for that person, she totally deserves it!) who has more experience than I do. Wouldn’t had it be more correct to tell me from the beginning? I meant Cisco, YOU CONTACTED ME, YOU READ MY CV, YOU SAW I HAD NO EXPERIENCE FOR THAT JOB AND WE EVEN TALKED ABOUT IT AND YOU SAID “IT’S FINE”, WE ALL HAVE TO START SOMEWHERE. Well my dear Cisco...if you ever contact me back I’ll be happy in saying that I’m sorry you might be the “best company” out there but I’m looking for a more serious place to work. Try to improve your terrible HR and hiring process.

Applied through Linkedin. Got a call weeks later. Totally had 5 rounds of interview. The first round was an introduction, second pre-screening process about the various technical knowledge I had specially Tableau.The third round was pure technical about machine learning and data analytics.The fourth and Fifth round was about team spirit, interest in the field and the job role overview.

Three steps of hiring. The first is about your CV. If they will like that (between hundreds of other applicants) you will then pass to the second stage, which is a phone call. That call is divided in two part. A formal and a motivational one. In two weeks they will let you know if you passed to the third stage: a real interview.