I'm interested in knowing if you have any second thoughts or regrets about that choice now that some time has passed? Maybe you realized that you miss your coworkers, or perhaps you've discovered that your new job isn't what you thought it would be. Whatever the reason may be, I'm just curious to hear about your experiences and whether or not you're happy with the decision you made.
15 replies (most recent on top)
I rejoined back after LR
Took the ER ins 2020 so I left on my own. 20+ years at Cisco. Took a few months off to do stuff around the house then got a job immediately after dipping my toes into the job market. Much smaller company, less on-campus goodies like I had a Cisco, but higher pay, better matching for 401k, and yearly (for two years anyway) COLA adjustments in the 4% range. Tons of lab space and the office area contains all engineering functions related to our products. EVERYTHING in one timezone!!! "suggest" work in office Tue-Thursday, lunch provided on a regular basis. Great teamwork, I actually like going in when I do. Overall, much happier at the new place. Much more effective and efficient use of 40 hours. Managers and co-workers adhere to 40 hours so not uncommon to see people off-line for the weekend by mid morning Friday.
Leftabout 4 months ago on my own. While sometimes i miss the 100% remote and doing virtually nothing for a paycheck, I have a FAR healthier work environment now, normal hours, supportive management and a 50k salary bump. So much happier overall. Plus, it feels goodto actually accomplish things.
I had over 20 years at Cisco, and I had a great time and experience, I left on my own in 2017. I didn't have the passion or enthusiasm for Cisco. I felt the Company was moving in a different direction under CR. I looked for a different culture and a company that valued their employees and work-life balance. I was very fortunate that my skill set made me an attractive hire. I have no bitterness toward Cisco, I realize it was time to go, and I asked for a layoff but ending leaving on my own. I stay in touch with a few of my co-workers, but don't understand why they stay being so unhappy. I am just around the corner now on Great American, stop by sometime.
would be funny if you quit Cisco toxic enviroment to go to FB or Google then suck up their wokeness only to be laid off, we are laughing !!!
Not a Cisco employee but left an equally toxic company, it’s been 6 months. I’ve started my own company. Minimal revenue at this point but zero regret. I should preface that we had emergency funds. I enjoy my days, love my life again. I don’t think I’ll ever go back to a traditional corporate job again. Life is too short for all the political BS.
Technically I didn't leave on my own terms as I got the boot in November 2020 along with a big bag of money. I'll still add my $0.02 anyways...
I've settled into a new career with a company that has brighter prospects than Cisco. The pay and benefits are MUCH better and the new skills I've learned will open more doors for me in the future if/when it's time to pursue something else. Overall the work environment is pleasant, a far cry from the horrible toxic place that Cisco is. Some people claim that one job is as good/bad as another in that regard but I've found that not to be the case. Cisco really is a cesspool.
However all of the above is somewhat wasted on me because what I desire most is to just coast all day and get free money. So in some ways, Cisco was actually my dream job. I was pretty well insulated from the toxicity so the company shenanigans ended up being a great source of entertainment and amusement for me. Part of the reason I still come here is to get the latest scoop about all the insanity going on and then reminiscing about "the good ol' days".
If you consider overall compensation and potential for upward mobility then I'm better off. If you consider the luxury of zero accountability and having a front row seat to the circus then I'll just cling to my memories.
Very well said @cqs+1lDueYk5.
Pretty much every company jump in my career has also brought salary increases. Some places tried to cut my pay after a couple of years which caused me to jump and others I failed to ask the right questions during my interviews causing me to jump into a worse job than the one before and needing to jump again.
I've found that, when forced to jump due to a layoff I cared more about finding a job quickly than I did about whether the company (or team) was a good work environment, strived for process improvement, etc. If it was a good job, which wasn't often, I'd stay until events changed. If it was a bad job, which was more often, I'd spend my time looking for a better job where I could ask more aggressive questions about leadership/management styles, why was the role available, etc. I'd pass on jobs where it looked like the environment was toxic, or they passed on me because they didn't like those types of questions. Once I found a company/role that looked good, I'd jump out of the bad one. Most times I was right and stayed for a while, but sometimes I was wrong and had to repeat the process again. Then a layoff would occur and I'd be back to looking for the first offer I could get to keep the income flow coming in and do the whole good job-bad job-good job cycle going again.
Believe it or not, I've found companies that are much worse than Cisco as far as internal politics and toxic work environments. They didn't have as good of benefits as Cisco. They were much smaller than Cisco, and either had no policies on how to do things or they were strangled by stupid policies that didn't work.
You know a company is toxic when you won't take a job w/ them because their work/life balance and management style is worse than Cisco's and you'd rather stay unemployed than take a job w/ them. I ended up deliberately tanking an interview w/ a company that was making a telepresence-like competitor product to Cisco's Telepresence back in 2016 because they were so bad. I didn't want to have to turn down an offer and lose my unemployment checks while I continued to look for, and ultimately found a job a few months later. It turned out to be a bad job, just like every other job I've accepted due to being unemployed. They had a micro-managing director and promoted a DBA into a manager's role to try to insulate the team from the director, but the DBA was too busy doing DBA work to effectively manage and didn't know what tasks the director was giving their team directly. I was told during my first performance review that I wasn't living up to my title as a Senior Technical Leader because I was too busy working on low-level tasks. Yet the manager giving me that performance review acknowledged that the fault for working on low-level tasks was that the director kept giving them to me because the dude who was supposed to be doing them was never at his desk when the director needed them done and wouldn't let me pass the task off as soon as the dude got back to his desk. I was so sick of that place, that when I got a call from a recruiter looking to fill a contract role at Cisco after getting my performance review, that I jumped for the opportunity to go back to Cisco. It's sad when Cisco is considered a better job than your current job while you look for a better yet job.
The things you're asking about from coworkers to the change not being what you thought apply just as much to normal transitions within Cisco when one project ramps down and people are dispersed onto other projects. Some jumps are good, some are not.
That said, every company jump in my career has brought me broader life experiences as well as salary increases which are repaid every year thereafter. Cisco taught me to be far more aggressive about asking my interviewers about how they improve their people, processes, products and services, how they assess the effectiveness of those improvements and what corrections they've made along the way because Cisco did none of the above and very few of its people cared to do better. Having worked in good development environments before working at Cisco I didn't know I needed to ask this but this has helped me avoid some poor development environments going forward.
I left of my own volition 15 months ago. The colleagues that I liked I’ve stayed in touch with and every time I talk to them I know I made the right decision to leave.
Don’t get me wrong, I thoroughly enjoyed my time at Cisco, I got great experience, worked with some great people (and a few mo--ns), and was involved with some interesting customers.
Ultimately though, I had to leave for my own personal development. I’d reached the limit of my progression within Cisco, I didn’t have the background to make PE or DE so I went elsewhere.
I have no regrets about working for Cisco, but neither do I have any regrets about leaving.
lol cisco
Why do people keep mentioning the woke agenda? It's a distraction to keep employees from asking for salaries that keep with inflation.
Cisco is outsourcing jobs to countries without labor laws. Many orgs at Cisco still utilize caste based hiring. Do you really think they care about woke agendas? Or is the woke agenda thing just to upset dimwits.
I miss some of the coworkers & opportunity to play with many different tech but I absolutely do not miss the woke agenda spending when platforms need huge investments...which my reason for leaving.
All my co-workers left or were pushed out. Most of the buildings I worked in were also sold.
Cisco is not a place but a moment in time
I just woke up one day and resigned from Cisco. Looking at this now - the best decision of my life.
I could no longer work in an environment where incompetence and politics are rewarded while challenging the status quo and innovation are considered a crime. it ate me alive.
Happy man