If your gut tells you it may be you, do not wait and worry. Reach out today to your past worker friends on LinkedIn to give a heads up. If you took pride in your work and applied your skills, your past coworkers will give you that edge over the first-cut bots (not even AI level) that scape some magic words on a resume. I encourage others not to focus as much on a polished resume (or that career assistance cr-p that companies are paid to do - worthless) but think through your past co-workers, look them up, and dont feel bad about reaching out to indicate you may be looking. Most are desperate for true talented applicants! Cisco is most definitely not the highest paying place to work (talking from experience as a former Sr Dir at Cisco) and you can go work at companies - where your stock options matter!! The stock actually grows not like this 2% over 5 years of CSCO. Many places are starved for talent and these notes from prior Cisco team members have led to me being able to help place many of them in my company - and it was a great relief to find solid talent!!! Your doing all of us a favor!
Your competition is often people who carry fancy titles, talk a pretty game, beautiful resumes, but the real growing companies know how to work past all that lipstick and grab the talent! Dont worry as I will end with a quote from my fortune 200 CEO last week in a public meeting: "older talent is priceless - they are seasoned with great experience and we need more of that". Dont loose sleep and worry - take action and be the hunter.
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to the note of: "It's not what you know, it's who you know." I would futher clarify to something like: "It's who you know, who know's what you know"!!!
It's not what you know, it's who you know.
If you've been a blue badge for 5 years or more apply for a "ramp down" LOA now. If you are not familiar with this benefit, check it out. Paid medical for a year. Not COBRA, paid by Cisco. Ability to return to Cisco if they cut too deep. Ability to look for another job while having paid medical, and you get to say you are still employed. Always easier to get a new job when you can say you're employed.