I’m still new-ish to the company. Curious about how different things are in places like San Jose, RTP, UK, etc.
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Culture is mainly defined by your manager and coworkers. Director and VP also play an important role.
We had a VP with positive and friendly personality. His culture flowed into lower level. I have also come across cold directors and VP.
We also had managers without any technical dept, they always depend upon others for everything including reviews. There are backstabbers in every group, people with bad attitudes and me me me personality.
Even within same group with multiple managers, there can be different culture based on each person’s culture, upbringing and personality.
70% of managers are crazy and bossy attitude. So it all depends who you report to and your coworkers.
HR is just a puppet of the company.
You guys have been saying RTP is closing for years and it still hasn’t happened. The reality is it will never close and Cisco would be d-mb to close it. That area is still growing rapidly and the people there are much more humble than most of the people I’ve worked with out of SJ.
"Ralie Duram area is like slum."
Holy cow. You can't even spell the name of the place you live.
RTP should date Lawrenceville.
I work in RTP now and everyone I work with is really great. Going to vary a lot depending on the team.
I thinks the RTP is worst. I was forced to leave san jose for cx role right when covid came. Backward peoples managers and cultures. Ralie Duram area is like slum.
RTP is closing.
If you're new to Cisco, below are the tips for you from what I learned at Cisco.
(by the way, I'm not a "Cisco native." I joined Cisco from another tech company a year ago.)
From my experiences in one of the US offices and the Japan office, I learned:
All must think alike,
All must act alike,
if you want to survive in this woke culture. It's just a game. Sorry to tell you, but there is nothing to learn from this company for your career because most people have no skill, no expertise, no experience outside the company. Do not expect any career development here.
Your experiences and skills you had gained at previous companies will totally be ignored at Cisco. If you appeal such things here, people will think of you a weird or an unusual person or they and your manager will ignore you even more and more.
They are only interested in people who've been at Cisco for over a decade or more.
All have no passion. (or strictly speaking, nobody should have passion)
All have no motivation. (or strictly speaking, nobody should have motivation)
Don't say your own opinion.
Don't ask any question in any situation even if you are asked for any question.
Don't try to expect any teamwork here.
Don't expect anyone would do/say anything nice to you.
Don't try to be friendly. Rather, be a bit unfriendly or cold.
Don't try to have any close relationship with anybody because that may cause something bad that could affect your employment. Risky...
Don't try to communicate with anyone closely.
Don't reply to any email. You can read, but do not reply.
Just stay calm.
Just be quiet.
Just do what you are told to do.
That's it.
from messages being posted, sounds like UK has the most extreme "culture"
Yes. The indian peoples only hire people they can boss and threaten. San jose is like sweat shop but with bad code loads coming from offshore teams. Because of this we test our softwares in customer environment. Software from the india has bugs like dung heap.
…they know that by themselves.
Despite much evidence to the contrary.
Anyone still there who doesn’t see that most people with 20 or fewer years experience are just as incompetent are in the same boat and just as likely to drill a big ho-e in the bottom to see where they’re going.
Lies and backstabbing is just part of their culture…
Using “their” to refer to sites worldwide staffed by every major culture I’ll point out you forgot to include plagiarism. These things are universal Cisco culture.
Profane tantrums where people were flailing about violently were common at SJ/RTP/BXB. I’ve seen this at every other company I’ve worked at in the US but Cisco is the only place I’ve seen someone do it in front of customers. It’s actually so common the response to it has a name: prairie dogging.
Lies and backstabbing is just part of their culture, we just need to understand and not trust them and it will be fine. Triple check anything with them.
All regions and countries are the same. Very childish, immature with no skill, no expert.
You are not expected to say your own opinion. Just do what you were told to do by your manager. Do not ask any question even if you are asked to ask.
Do not closely communicate with anyone. There is no teamwork spirit at Cisco regardless of regions and countries.
Too many too long-tenured (more than 20 years!) employees who were promoted to managers and directors who are normally considered so incompetent, so incapable outside Cisco. They've stayed at Cisco too long and now it's just too late to move out to other companies, so they're going to have to stick to Cisco. Regardless of the regions or countries, US, UK, Japan, Singapore, Sydney, they know that by themselves.
India backstabbing , no say
So the office politics are also normal politics and part of the culture. Who would have guessed….
India backstabbing? Nooo, you don’t say.
I’m also surprised that India sided with Russia. Feels like a total slap in the face considering that America has done quite a lot to help India develop itself over the past two decades.
what kid of question is this?
It's a relationship based company. Build strategic relationships with people that have political power. The rest is inconsequential.
You can have 14 consecutive failed projects, and still receive a promotion if you are friends with a VP. Performance is not measured or tracked.