Thread regarding Cisco Systems Inc. layoffs

@xju nice philosophy. Transfer the printed papers to me. You don't understand its value.

@mbt - it's a team effort.

You can have the best h/w or s/w engineers on the planet but, without a technically astute SE community selling product they are pretty pointless.

Equally, without decent product, the SEs have a problem.

Unfortunately, over the last few years, quality in both communities has been declining badly. 'Millennials', it would appear, are not that good.

Isn't the bigger issue the chasing of money itself? Pay money to get an education, to get a job, to in turn be constantly wondering if you are being correctly compensated, so in turn the person spend all their time working the job to make the more money, to then spend it on a bunch of stuff they really don't need or want.

One of the smartest things people can do for themselves if they are planning on working at Cisco as long as they can, is to live like you really aren't making all the money. Bank most of it, max your 401k, buy a realistic house, and pay it all off. When your time finally comes, what you'll have left, if you still want to work in networking/IT, is the desire to work because you want to...not because you have to.

Don't let money control you. That's the biggest issue with keeping up with promotions, salary, new technology. It's all baloney funny money, a cooked-up US dollar that in itself is still only worth something because it's the world currency...and they simply printed more after the 2008 meltdown.

Look beyond your job, and where the company is going. Look at yourself...what do you truly value?

SEs are not the real assets... it's a tech company, so its hardware and software engineers are the real assets (or alteast should be). They are the ones that develop (or do not develop) the technical products customers need in their networks. SEs are a dime of dozen, there are plenty of people out there with some technical and some sales background.

This is the biggest issue in SE roles. Almost all agree that the real assets of Cisco are its SE folks but in reality, it's stagnant once he his se4.

It does seem to vary by territory/operation. In my last role it was made crystal-clear that I was not going to be advanced to the next grade "because it would cost too much". I left. My replacement, who I happen to know outside Cisco, was brought in on the higher grade. How does that work? I think this is an issue across Cisco but especially in the SE job family. Look at all the miserable SEMs with no opportunity for advancement. I lost count of the SEs from my Op that left because of this.

If you really want it, pack your bags and move.