Thread regarding Cisco Systems Inc. layoffs

I am Glad I got the Axe. I am looking forward to something better. Here's what I saw at Cisco in the last 3.5 years.

  1. There are too many Managers/Directors who are not very strong. Most of them don't have real people/technical skills. Not to mention their English, Chinese, Indian and Russian Managers / Directors have very poor language skills. The All-hands meetings were so non-technical and boring I felt like listening to a Car-Sales-Man talking non stop its like listening to a cheap Radio Ad. I wanted to drop a UCS chassis on their head just so that they would shut up about numbers. Its all about numbers or another tech company.. How do we beat HP or Dell and get their share. It was never about how do we build an amazing product.

2 They don't have the Neurons to get a Real MBA but they have enough to get Certificates from Berkeley and Stanford and they have it on their Linkedin and are very proud of it. Most of them have Degrees from State Universities and Degrees from India, China from the late 90s. Honestly they are Mr and Mrs Potato Heads.

  1. Technical Leaders can't write any Code. Indian and Chinese Tech Leads have bad language skills. They are good at Networking to some extent but they can't write code.

  2. Contractors are hired to do Mole Monkey work. I think its a waste of money and time to hire them but Cisco has some business strategy I guess benefits, stocks etc that some how works out to Cisco's advantage so we have contractors.

  3. I have No Idea about Sales, Marketing since I am from a Technical / Engineering background. But It looks like They are all Chasing a Number which is hard to catch.

  4. No innovative products to really compete with Google, AWS or Microsoft Azure or any other Cloud Company.

  5. Low Motivation among people, 1- Free Snack per day. LAME.

I'm glad that I got the AXE.

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| 3509 views | | 11 replies (last August 23, 2016) | Reply
Post ID: @OP+IZ6zQhd

11 replies (most recent on top)

I like Cisco. I've been able to hid out jerking off for years watching people move around. I'm glad to still be here and hiding., drawing an ok salary and contributing to mediocracy- and best of all, I got an all expense trip to Vegas to goof off while supposed to be at a stupid sales conf.

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Post ID: @2bsk+IZ6zQhd

@ cse

I'm interviewing at Google and Uber I'm pretty confident about getting an offer from both. Do you think I was jerking off like you for the past 3.5 years @Cisco? No Son!

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Post ID: @2mjn+IZ6zQhd

your post is clearly why you got the axe, well deserved.

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Post ID: @1dmr+IZ6zQhd

So true.

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Post ID: @1cxm+IZ6zQhd

Hard to work for a manager who is not technical in a technical team.

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Post ID: @1brc+IZ6zQhd

Guys, I worked at a Oil and Gas Multinational, and my boss had Microsoft Office certificate framed in his office.

It's not about your credentials, skills or work produced. It is about playing the game. Something I have no use for, and prefer working in the miserable arctic.

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Post ID: @1ibi+IZ6zQhd

When you have 3 reports under a VP and one of them is an executive admin for the VP, you can figure out how much these guys milk the system.. When your technical leader or your architect has never touched a router or never visited lab to rack/stack/configure/troubleshoot.. Your expectations should be pretty low with regards to technical aptitude of an director

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Post ID: @1zkz+IZ6zQhd

So true on point#2. So many claim they were "educated" from Stanford or UPenn grad school when they all really got was a two week paid certification course in some project management or leadership course.

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Post ID: @mmg+IZ6zQhd

@wuc - 100% accurate

The topic of management and products has been brought up frequently on this board the last few days. It is true, that is the core of the problem. Engineers would work for less if the products were interesting.

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Post ID: @fum+IZ6zQhd

Most of the CTOs/Directors/VPs/SVPs do not even know the basics of IP at Cisco. They can not even understand simple IP address. Cisco slowly heading down the path of Lucent and Nortel.

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Post ID: @dgl+IZ6zQhd

You got a free snack? We don't get any!

Seriously, they don't give a crap about motivation. They give RSUs and better bonuses to what they would consider top 5%. Good for them. The rest wallow in mire. Very depressing.

The topic of management and products has been brought up frequently on this board the last few days. It is true, that is the core of the problem. Engineers would work for less if the products were interesting.

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Post ID: @wuc+IZ6zQhd

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