If so many of you are unhappy at Cisco then why don't you gtf out? Nobody is forcing you to work here. Nobody made you even apply. And nobody for sure is keeping you here. If you're unhappy leave to elsewhere to a place that you want to be. Be happy. Seems like so many of you are bringing gloom onto yourself.
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The point isn't "if you don't like it, get out" - in fact, it's the exact opposite. We do like it, but we are powerless to affect our future at the company. For the past 10 years, the corporate culture changed from "protect your most valuable resource" to "manage the bottom line." There is a reason annual performance reviews magically disappeared in 2013...and it's not because a) managers were only talking to their teams once a year about performance, and nobody likes being surprised at the last second....or b) managers were forced to score on a curve (they still have to do that for bonus anyway)....it was to eliminate documentation employees could leverage when getting cut. Cuts are based on a financial target, pure and simple. The employee working 55-60 hrs per week doesn't want to leave, they love the company, and they have a right to call out BS when they see it, not get pushed out for having an opinion.
There is nothing special about Cisco mgmt over the years. The internet technology that began in the mid-80s that launched Cisco would have been a huge success even with the worst mgmt. Cisco has not kept up with the changing technologies or properly invested in innovation. At this point the executive buzzards are swooping in to get their piece of the Cisco carcass. Cisco mgmt is poor and has lost focus. Instead of focusing on "diversity is our strength" and tearing up on a company wide webex about nonexistent racial and social injustice, they should have been paying attention to the industry changes that were happening all around them.
@2iwr Cisco can get 4 PMs in India for 1 PM in the US. PM are the most useless folks at Cisco, all they do is send out status updates, ppt/excel spreadsheets, hiding on webex meetings.
GTF out? Do you understand what the job market is like now and what it will be in a few months? Companies have put a freeze on hiring. A large number of people are going to be let go. The competition for the open positions will be fierce. Age discrimination is real and if you are 50+, you can guarantee not being in the running for 99.99% of them.
Typically, a company has an open position and they get 200 applicants. 100 applicants aren't even a fit and trashed from the AI. Of the 100 viable candidates, 25 are dumped because of age. They can't ask age questions, but they can make estimates based on when you finished college. 30 others are eliminated because salary demands are far out of scale. 20 others are eliminated because their salary requirements are higher than the rest. Now you have 25 candidates remaining. Half of those are eliminated because mismatch of expected skills compared to the others. Half of the remaining are eliminate for arbitrary reasons. That leaves 7-8 for phone interviews and half of those making it to in person interviews. Now, that is under normal employment cycles. Now, you don't have 200 people, you have 2,000 people. with the supply so large, people are desperate. It becomes cutthroat at the salary level to have any chance at being competitive.
And for those at Cisco, they post jobs that don't exist simply to gather market demand information. An example is a PM position, they receive 200 applicants, compare compensation demands versus what is onboard. That data tells them that getting rid of PMs making $100k per year can be replaced by the mother lode of possible replacements applying for the position.
Lol acquisition company. M&A is notoriously difficult to pull off successfully. If it were so easy just to buy a company and seamlessly integrate them into your ecosystem, everyone would would do it. Yes, there's lots of it right now but the price to buy tech companies is outrageous. All that "easy profit" is taken out of the equation when you pay 15x+ revenue.
Cisco has always been an acquisition company.
Why develop it yourself when you canjust buy it?
You been under a rock?
EVERYONE IS A REMOTE WORKER NOW
COMPANIES HIRE FROM ALL OVER WORLD
So far, all the recruiters contacting me with opportunities that "I'm a perfect fit for" are:
a) not a fit
b) a significant pay cut
c) remote to start, but I have to relocate to wherever the job is once the pandemic ends
d) all 600+ miles from where I currently live
@@1alm+16EIt6bW
Pretty funny post, made even funnier by the pidgin English.
But to get to your main point, which seems to be that there are tons of fresh grads from 2nd and 3rd tier schools who'd like to work at Cisco, has it crossed your mind that they may not be able to do real work? And if they can't, do Cisco and the 'old' engineers owe them a job?
Writing Java c-ap isn't what Cisco was built on, but that's pretty much all the current fresh grads can do. I should know, I interviewed plenty of them.
Grow up, kid, and learn some English.
My 20 years at Cisco have been great and the ER is exactly the right thing for me.
I worked in the disk drive industry for 20 years before Cisco - a real cut throat environment. Layoffs, take overs, companies going bankrupt.
Cisco was a dream come true.
Eventually the Googles, Facebooks and other premier companies will eventually be in the same situation as Cisco. Business will change so much they will start with the layoffs- or people will get tired of them selling their personal info and they will die as companies.
@1alm quote:
"... a big cleanup of the old people is good for the industry and coming new blood..."
This company had the opportunity to invest in new technology. That time is gone. Cisco has turned into an aquisition company. Yes they could get rid of 30%, that would not change the high level behavior of now the company morphing into a "old" technology company.
BTW yes I am old, yes I was LR'd, yes I walked with enough of a nest egg to retire. Regretfully I don't think that great opportunity (the end of the rainbow payout) is going to be there for your generation at Cisco. I hope I am wrong because if people sacrifice 55/60 hours a week for over a decade yes they deserve similar. Guessing us "old" folks took all that.
I wish you the best but just keep breathing and someday soon you will be "old"... and expect to be rewarded for a long term commitment.
Everywhere I look seems to be hiring only their friends/family. I hate this place.
Are you living with your parents and you're happy with this new "gig economy" ? You sound like you are, plus what you babble here sounds very juvenile and immature. Now I have a surprise for you kid - you will be 40 or 50 too, I swear ! Just wait long enough, really...
Frankly speaking there are many of my friends who would like join Cisco even today. The problem is that there are not enough openings for the fresh grads. There are tons of CS students graduated from the 2nd or 3rd tier school would like to join Cisco family. Having a big cleanup for the old people is good for the industry and coming new blood. There are many old people complaining how s—s Cisco is. They are comparing with the good old day where Cisco likes Google in '90. Be realistic, they should compare with companies like HP or DELL or Intel. You will find out the Layoff package from Cisco is damn good. One thing I don't like Cisco is that the cut is not deep enough. Instead of cutting employee every year. Why not cutting 30% in one deep clean cut. Now it is the opportunity for Cisco to do it for both engineer and management level. The cut shouldn't be the same for every BU. For those BU which are not performing, cut should be much deeper. Otherwise, Cisco won't be able to free up resources to invest on new technology and high engineers with the right skill.
reality is cisco will lay you off in a year anyway. why not take 9 months pay and retrain yourself?
unfortunately, you are doomed no matter how you slice it.
you can be smart about it or sheeple
I liked the work I did. It was interesting with customer interaction. I don't care for nor care to engage in the "diversity is our strength" culture BS, and I hated having it imposed on me as an employee. Just let me do my job.
Because some people still believe in loyalty and what once was. Until you are LR'd. you don't really know how much a company doesn't care about you. Look at the Cisco job postings and see how many are similar to your job. They are not real openings, but there to collect data on what it would gain them to replace you and the skills of what is available on the open market.
I don't expect anyone to voluntarily just leave with the way the economy is now. Layoffs are just starting. Most companies cannot layoff until Oct 1. Banks, airlines, and many others have to wait until Oct 1 and they are already announcing the numbers. The unemployment numbers in October will be very large. Within a year, many companies will be looking to fill those vacated positions, but at 50% of what was paid because they know they have a large pool to choose from and people will be desperate by then.
Reasons?
Many years ago, Cisco was a cool place to work, believe it or not. Some are still around
Bills
Family to support
Lack of marketable skills after "working" at Cisco for years
Annual layoff's took toll emotionally, battered employee syndrome
Stockholm Syndrome
Unprecedented unemployment numbers
False belief that a company has your back
Gloom is universal, look around. I would MUCH rather be happy and carefree, believe me.
But, thank you for the swift kick in the a**. I'm sure you have been through situation before, you sound like an authority on the subject.
Why leave, when I can milk Cisco and the unemployment funds until the last second.
Best place I ever worked! Have been back several times as a contractor and would return in a NY minutes. I was impacted by the LR in 2014. You haven't lived until you go elsewhere.
“ Not all of us live in the bay area where there are tech jobs. There are maybe eh, 2 maybe 3 major tech companies within a 50 mile radius here?”
You been under a rock?
EVERYONE IS A REMOTE WORKER NOW
COMPANIES HIRE FROM ALL OVER WORLD
No Lame Excuses
Oh wow! I 100% agree with the OP on this.
As for the person who who claims they don't live by a area with tech jobs. BS. Every company has a IT department. Apply to any of them. They may not pay as much or have the same benefits but you're out of Cisco and hopefully happy.
And, if you're adamant about staying in a major IT company then s— it up that LRs happen. As the OP said if you stay and don't like it it's your own fault for being miserable.
That's life and how things are. Plain and simple.
Not all of us live in the bay area where there are tech jobs. There are maybe eh, 2 maybe 3 major tech companies within a 50 mile radius here?
I am doing exactly that!
People, including everyone, naturally like to fuss and complain. About spouses. About family. About work. About their weight.
Just because people complain at times, it doesn't mean they don't care, and it doesn't mean they want to leave. Their spouses. Their family. Their work. Or their pizza.