Am I being reckless leaving a relatively stable job for a senior title at a startup that pays 30 percent less cash but dangles stock options like they’re golden tickets?
15 replies (most recent on top)
You are being reckless asking this group of laid of people for career advice.
Everyone at Cisco is at risk every quarter end after results published. Whether results good or bad, everyone is at risk of “ we must laser refocus on growth areas” BS emails from CR.
Clearly, you've considered all the angles. You're not being reckless at all. YOLO!!!
Cisco has become a toxic place to work. The stress levels and overall duplicitous culture is one of the worst I’ve seen. Growing product lines gutted with LRs. Only low grade levels being approved. And just general over their skis leaders in middle management with no vision or original thought. LRs the day after beating earnings. While Chuck the fu-k expounds on cnbc that he hates to cut jobs. Then they cut merit in half to get ready for the next big LR coming after they announce in a soft Q1earnings. It’s say one thing and to the opposite. Like the US government. Cisco used to be a great place to work. Now it’s a place you go to make mediocre money and live in fear of LR. Which if you’re around long enough you will get. No one in tech WANTS to go work for Cisco anymore. Tech dinosaurs with sh-t products which aren’t invested in. Company is run by finance. And products sold in EA, WPA. The new sh-t which is chip based DOESNT WORK. XDR, doesn’t work, SSE riddled with bugs and lacks features. FW can’t be competing. DC is dying and not best of breed. Networking getting eroded by better products by Arista and Juniper. Splunk was a dying, super expensive platform most companies looking to move from. Once I left Cisco the weight lifted felt life changing. This company is dog sh-t run by absolute posers director down.
"Almost" hahahahaha. You have been and will be saying that till retirement
@OP I don’t think calculus should be that hard if this startup is or will be tied into the government in any real way it may be worth it. If not, probably not worth the risk.
You won't get the answer(s) you want on this forum, which is full of naysayers. Many people have gotten rich over night w/ IPO stock and many start-ups have failed overnight as well. Just follow your heart.
It sounds like you have some ducks in a row and you aren't just leaping into the pond with a blindfold on. So this is really just a personal question about risk tolerance that nobody can answer for you. If you're considering it I assume you believe the startup can actually succeed.
Personally I think promises of future returns aren't worth the air they're exhaled on, but I'm also low risk with my employment. A 30% pay cut now for some slot machine tokens is my idea of a bad time, but if you believe in their product the math may sit different with you. My personal experience with stocks has never been good enough to justify that kind of play.
I will bet my left nut @OP aint leaving Cisco for nowhere
...or you can stay, festering like a boil on the butt0ck of of a pasture cow , until either you dry up and shrivel off; or the LR buzzard picks you off.
If this is a service based startup then you might as well not leave. That will soon be replaced by AI if not already done somewhere. If it is a Product based startup that has not been done before then sure it is worth it. No RSUs thou. Probably no a great bonus. The equity does not really matter as you wont get much anyways and even if it translates into an acquisition (chances of layoffs during acquisition or soon after) or an IPO and unless the stock sky rockets on IPO day, you are not in a great position.
Everyone knows their days are numbered at Cisco some people choose not to accept it.
I’ve worked at a startup that grew from 25 to 120+ and went through an acquisition. It was a great experience and I learned a lot from it.
Having said that, startups are not for everyone. They require significantly more time (including some nights/weekends). Typically have bad benefits. And most don’t end up getting acquired - so that stock will end up worthless. I would suggest asking about funding e.g. who, how many rounds, burn rate, and runway.
If none of that matters to you, then great and hope you enjoy the work!
Without knowing more about the startup in question, who can say?
One thing for sure - Cisco is not stable. Cisco is a weird combination of high risk, low reward. The low-reward part is obvious - just look at your paycheck. The high-risk part is not just the constant stream of LRs, but the harm done to your resume that results from working at a D-list company.
If you can swing the reduction in pay and you think the startup is actually viable, go for it.
You consider Cisco stable lol and are talking about startups in 2025. You are a clown.