About Me:
I am from India. Came to United States in August 1995 to pursue higher studies. Completed my dual Masters degree in Information Systems and Computer Science from Arizona State University [ASU] in Fall 1998. In the summer of 1998, I was offered an internship at Lucent Technologies in Milpitas, CA. After completing my final semester at ASU, I took up a full-time position in Lucent as a Web Engineer. In early 2000, Lucent announced it was spinning off a new company - Avaya and the division that I was working on would be part of this new company. Personally, I was not too jazzed about this. Plus the economy was starting to take a hard turn for the south. As much as I luved working in Lucent (now Avaya), I made the rather tough decision of moving on. That brought me to Cisco Systems in Feb of 2001. The first few months @ Cisco were very tough. Soon after I joined, Cisco did it’s first major layoffs in it’s 17 year history. Plus, 9-11 happened soon. I even contemplated going back to Avaya. However, I decided to stick it out and while things did not improve for years, in retrospect, I was blessed to be at Cisco. When everyone around me in Silicon Valley was worrying about job layoffs, we at Cisco were lucky enough to be showered upon with yearly bonuses. And while that in itself would have been enough to feel good about my decision in 2001 to join Cisco, it was nothing compared to what I ended up getting later…my wife.
Today (01/16/2006), I still work for Cisco Systerms. I live in Pleasanton, CA with my wife and Bart, our Wire Fox Terrier! And if we are blessed, we will have a new member join us soon 
Today (07/09/2009), I continue to enjoy my professional life as an IT Architect at Cisco Systerms. We still live in Pleasanton, CA and now are proud parents of two kids, a girl (Emma) and a boy (Zachariah). As a matter of fact, today Emma turns 2! And yes, Bart is still around doing what he does best, although he certainly has gotten the raw end of the deal ever since these babies came into our lives..
If you're interested in my professional career and interests, check out my profile at LinkedIn:
Email: anand dot sharma at gmail dot com