Cisco International Internship Programme

Here are all the Cisco Interns from UCL…

After the orientation week, we all were looking forward to joining our teams and learning about the projects we would be working on. Being on the Web Marketing and Strategy team, Boris and I got an opportunity to see the demonstration of Cisco’s TelePresence as they would show it to one it’s future customers’.

TelePresence is a technology, which transforms the business activity through the adoption of pervasive video.It is a way of linking two separate rooms and creating a connection between them through high quality audio and video hence creating an environment similar to a conference room for instance.

You guys should check out this link to get a better idea of this technology. After the demonstration I was amazed at how they had collaborated the technologies to reduce the distances between people, create flexibility and save time.

Cisco uses TelePresence throughout its company to interact with people in different countries in a given environment. The opportunity to look at such a futuristic technology and the way its going to evolve the way people interact and communicate with each other was indeed a fantastic experience.

Just like any university in the UK, the first week of the program was an orientation one. During that time we had many talks and presentations, given by high-ranking Cisco employees, on the company’s mission and vision. I found the computer set up sessions very useful because I got all the necessary applications and software and I learnt how to use them for my future projects and work. We’ve been through the same orientation as Cisco’s new hires and this was a great opportunity to meet people and make new friends. This made my adjustment to the new working environment very easy. Towards the end of the week we had a tour to Cisco’s Gym where all the interns and new hires then played Dodge ball. Although it was the first time to play such a game, I did have an amazing time and I really enjoyed it. The week ended at “Dave and Buster’s”, an American restaurant and amusement arcade, where I found myself playing video games against friends, feeling like a 10-year old kid and having such a great time! The idea behind having an orientation week was not only to get a better understanding of Cisco’s culture and goals but to also have fun and engage with the rest of the new hires and interns.

Back in May, I was sure what was my plan for the summer. Go to Montenegro, visit my parents, do some traveling around Europe, come back to London in July, start my summer job and be a volunteer at the Olympic Games. Actually, I had my five-year plan all worked out, but let’s not go into details.

I did go to Montenegro, and I did visit a friend in Rome, but while London was being an awesome Olympic Game’s host city, I was settling down in San Jose, California. Long term plans DO NOT work!!

Cisco US decided to start a collaboration with UCL and University of Kent and offer an amazing work experience to their students. Most students are placed within Cisco’s IT, although I personally work with the Marketing team in-charge of cisco.com. Cisco covers the flights, the rent and it’s a paid internship, so it’s a sweeeeeet deal.

So what was the process of getting the internship? One day, while I was doing some really serious thinking about my favourite thing in the world – chocolate, I noticed an e-mail about the internship. I sent my CV and a cover letter (which I specifically made for this purpose, recycling not suggested). Universities internally review these and suggest students to Cisco.

Several months later, in the middle of the exam period, I got a call from Cisco. I think I sounded a bit too excited over the phone. I blame all those liters of coffee.

I had a WebEx interview scheduled. As aside, WebEx is Cisco’s video conferencing collaboration tool (I would normally say that WebEx is like Skype for business, but here at Cisco, we do not like the S-word, so I am not going to). The interview was quite fun.

In couple of days, I got an e-mail with an offer. California, here I come!!!
…to be continued