This interview taught me why being truthful isn’t the same as being effective

I’m sharing my interview experience with Cisco through the Code with Cisco opportunity — mainly to highlight something I underestimated: the managerial round.

I received this opportunity after participating in the Code with Cisco challenge.
The Cisco team later contacted me through my college T&P cell.

📌 For a detailed technical breakdown of the same role, you can also check this LeetCode Discuss post:
👉 Cisco FY’26 Winter Intern + FTE – Detailed Technical Breakdown

The process had three elimination rounds:

1. Technical Round
2. Managerial + Technical Round
3. ETR (HR) Round

1️⃣ Technical Round

Two interviewers joined the call, both with 15+ years of experience at Cisco.

• Started with a brief introduction
• Discussed my summer internship (automation-related) — they seemed quite interested
• Moved to projects, especially one AI-based project, which led to a deeper discussion
• The interview lasted ~1 hour
• Ended with a design question around a chat/helping system

At the end, they mentioned that I had a strong understanding of my work and good technical knowledge.

2️⃣ Managerial + Technical Round

This round is where things started to go wrong — in hindsight.

• Began with an introduction and discussion around my tech stack
• I had projects across multiple stacks (Python, Web Dev, Systems), which I now feel created a lack of clear positioning
• Followed by situational and behavioral questions
• Finally, the key question:

“Where do you see yourself in the next 3–4 years?”

I answered very honestly and said something along the lines of wanting to build something exceptional on my own that impacts real life — like tools similar to GitHub Copilot.

At that moment, it felt like the most genuine answer.
Later, I realized it may have signaled misalignment or instability, even though that wasn’t my intention.

Despite this, I cleared the round.

3️⃣ ETR (HR) Round

This was short and mostly focused on:

• relocation
• availability
• general confirmation questions

Final Verdict: Rejected

No detailed reason was provided, but based on my reflection, a few possible factors:

• The opportunity came towards the end of Cisco’s hiring cycle, so positions may already have been filled
• My resume reflected multiple tech stacks, which might have lacked a clear focus
• Most importantly — I was honest, but not structured or aligned in my managerial answers

In the “where do you see yourself” question, I focused on my dream instead of how that dream fits within the company.

Key Learning

Managerial rounds are not about what you want to build someday.
They’re about alignment, clarity, and long-term fit.

Honesty matters — but how you frame that honesty matters just as much.

Sharing this so others — especially technically strong candidates — don’t underestimate managerial rounds.

Compensation and breakdown:
Read here