I don't believe there is anyone who, after Cisco, hasn't found a job yet or has had bad luck and ended up in an even worse company? You have to be really unlucky for that happen.
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@3nbd+1eepiT8I Ditto! Astonishing amount of completely useless WebEx calls . And to that list of more useless online trainings add weird Capture the Flag training requirements. Apparently there are all strategically amazingly important. With all these trainings that no one ever needs, where do I find the time to do any actual work?
And then there are the management hopefuls , who given the scope to talk , talks endlessly, pointlessly and cluelessly trying to sound important. It’s ridiculous. Time to look for the exit door.
Meetings that are pointless for 20 hours a week.
Welcome to Agile development. I've yet to work for a company who knew how to do Agile effectively.
Mandantory trainings that you have to repeat each year that take up a solid few weeks of bordom and repetition.
Welcome to large corporations. They all do annual ethics, security, & se-ual harassment training every year.
Toxic work environment where talking is against the rules and sharing real information will get you fired.
That's the real sad thing. But I've seen that at other companies too. Of, if you get on the wrong side of that one guy who golfs w/ the boss gets you fired.
"Single sign on" that makes you sign in 15 times a day for security reasons and takes 5 minites each time.
Only 15 times? You don't do much work then. And it's only 45-90 seconds each time, but yeah, SSO sux. It's especially annoying to have to use SSO to get to the CEC search page, then get to do SSO to get to the one of the results from the search, then use SSO yet again to follow a re-direction link from the dead search result, which then has links that require SSO to view. That's 5 times just for one task that I may do a half dozen times a day.
On my way out too. Nothing is worth the ridiculousness Cisco puts employees through.
Meetings that are pointless for 20 hours a week.
Mandantory "diversity training" that is really just CRT in disguise.
Mandantory trainings that you have to repeat each year that take up a solid few weeks of bordom and repetition.
Toxic work environment where talking is against the rules and sharing real information will get you fired.
"Single sign on" that makes you sign in 15 times a day for security reasons and takes 5 minites each time.
Useless data that is just lies in pretty powerpoint.
Not worth how obnoxious this place is. Plus - there is a labor shortage everywhere and between that and inflation (plus very limited pay raises at Cisco) basically every role is now vastly underpaid here.
New job today!!
I worked at Cisco for many, many years before taking the package in November 2020. Now I'm working at a startup in a rising industry and making way more money than I ever did at Cisco.
The only reason I stayed for so long was because I was sleepwalking through my five hour days while collecting a paycheck. Until I found out about this site years ago I assumed everybody around me was doing the same thing.
I browse this site for entertainment and nothing entertains me more than all the posters, clearly on the verge of heart attacks, losing their minds over the shenanigans taking place in the clown car known at Cisco.
Unless you are 100% incompetent you will absolutely find more opportunities and happiness elsewhere. The only reason I would recommend sticking around Cisco is if you like spending half days semiconscious while switching between web surfing and playing sudoku.
I am based out of U.K. and am going through couple of interviews with start-ups in some new next gen tech areas. I am not quite desperate yet ( being cautious and selective) but having spend a few years at Cisco here, I feel somewhat lost. Need to get my career and focus back on track. I am not remotely political, cannot backbite my peers, as one or two of the same peers have been doing to me - heard that from my manager about 6 months back when I started thinking about making a move. I’d prefer moving to the US where the market appears to be a lot healthier than here but I face the working visa challenges there. I’ll see how the dice rolls in the next couple of months.
ANY tech company (regardless of SW, HW, cloud, or SaaS) can be better than Cisco in every way, of course! Organization, team, people, techniques, technologies, expertise, salaries and benefits are way above, way better than Cisco in all regions worldwide.
Color me unlucky. My experience leaving Cisco after an LR was that I'd end up w/ a cr---y job because I needed an income, then use that job to look for another job where I could be picky about the company and accepting an offer. Then I'd get LR'd by a good company, end up back at Cisco, convert to an employee and get LR'd again where I'd end up w/ a cr---y job to look for a good job again.
Any tech company CAN be good, but there's just as many out there that are cr-p as those that are good. I keep ending up back at Cisco on different teams with a pay raise which puts a target on my back for an LR because I'm expensive, but a team needs something fixed and knows my work is willing to pay me to come back and keep me until the issue is fixed, but then I get axe'd by the next LR after fixing their issue. But as long as I keep getting a 6-mo severance package and a raise when I come back, I'll keep using the revolving door that is Cisco. I've done the revolving door thing 6 times, so that's 3 yrs salary banked minus the less than a month's time to land the next gig, so really I've banked 2 1/2 yrs of salary as profit.
Agree with various statements. I am able and willing to tolerate an amount of cr-p as long as I am paid well. The pay to cr-p ratio is now low. I am gone.
Lots of people leaving. Two really impactful PE’s left my BU yesterday.
I've been looking around and with inflation nearly every company is paying about +30% for the same roles. Making 100k right now? You'll make $130k just by sending out a few resumes and talking to a few people in interviews. And be happier to boot!
No reason to work at Cisco for most folks, bad pay, sh---y environment, and they treat you like a slave.
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Good luck! It certainly is not the technology company it once was. Recognize that.
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I came from sh-t, so when I decided to pull my self up off my a-s and get educated, I picked networking to learn first. Cisco became a dream because when you’re new, Cisco==networking.
Then I got hired and felt like fu-k I made it….one of the best companies in the world and they picked me!!
Then I see all the mediocrity and “just let it slide” and all the sh-t everyone knows what I’m talking about, and I realize I’m hurting my self by being here too long.
Cisco is overwhelming us to the point we don’t have the energy to try and get out, and give us just barely enough pay to make it not straight up insane, but too bad. Time to get back on my finish two years of school in 1.5 grind and find a way into a role that helps me grow and protect my career, which I will likely need to work for the next 40+ years unless I make some really well placed choices.
Sad to realize Cisco is not the company I thought it was. Good thing is I’m only going on year 3
I left five years ago after a decade+. I would say this. You may be one of the few whose responsibilities and span of control are increasing, in which case, working for Cisco can look good on the resume. You have a personal development story to sell.
Working at Cisco for most is suspended animation. For you, understand that working at Cisco is not enhancing your personal brand as it might have in the past. In fact, it probably brands you as a mediocrity unless you have some stand out sales/program-creation type achievements. Sure, you know Cisco process/procedure/product, but the value in transferring that to another job opportunity is minimal.
If you are there, and and not interviewing with at least two outside companies a year in this environment, you are selling yourself short and hurting your long term career viability.
Good luck! It certainly is not the technology company it once was. Recognize that.
"Where are you guys going?"
Not to RTP because it's closing. Confirmed.
ANY tech company (regardless of SW, HW, cloud, or SaaS) can be better than Cisco in every way, of course! Organization, team, people, techniques, technologies, expertise, salaries and benefits are way above, way better than Cisco in all regions worldwide.
On my day 1 at Cisco J----, I was like OMG! I made a big mistake, feeling like I had joined a school or government. People around me (new grads and those who'd been there for over two decades!) were all so meek and quiet, never utter a single word at any meeting. And soon I thought I really gotta get out of here and started looking for a job, and got an offer from another company.
My experience there was pretty bizarre and weird. Never felt like that at my prev companies I'd worked.
Several months was long enough for me, and I'm so happy now, feeling like I'm really back to life! ;-)
Don't waste your time.
Wherever you end up going, you'd do us all a huge favor by poaching the current ELT. You won't be disappointed, they're in a class of their own!
Where are you guys going? I need out..probably need to do some basic cloud certs but man they are pounding every ho-e right now and when time off hits I don’t want to be at the computer.
They expect us to work 12 hours a day and I did my first year and a half or so, then I got obese and unhealthy from sedentary life and fast food because of lack of energy and time, so I started a health kick and man I feel great.
But now, I’ve got to use all this extra power to get on the hunt and get out
New job is completely remote and pays more. Cisco isn’t a bad company- it’s just average and I didn’t want an average job with average pay.