Anyone has any credible info about the headcount reduction? I am 42 and i wasted my life in this junk place, have very little skills also that anyone will care outside Cisco.
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I am so excited for 7th oct. lots of butterflies in my tummy ;)
Agree with the reply about not making as much from jobs after 50. I worked at Cisco for 16 years, and was laid off at 59, reaching Cisco grade 12. I was able to find something after several months, but had to understate my previous Cisco salary in order to not price myself out of the market. I took an SW engineer position for about $75K less than I was getting in my Cisco position.
People with lousy attitudes need to go! Cisco has been an awesome company that cares about people. I took the package after over 20 years. No bitterness, no issues, I’ll miss the people, the work, the company. Time to make room for the younger engineers. Thank you Cisco for all the good years!
People with lousy attitudes do need to go. But people who are saying that Cisco is no longer the great and wonderful place it used to be do not necessarily have lousy attitudes.
Cisco no longer cares about people and the "Cisco family" is no longer a thing. Any caring is restricted to one or two management levels above you. Cisco will allow you work flexibility to deal with family emergencies, but doesn't care the least bit about you when it comes time to kick you to the curb with no notice.
Like you, I have no bitterness against the company, but I am bitter with a couple of individuals. I'm grateful that Cisco gave me a much better package than other companies I've worked at that have shut their doors and let everyone go. I'm happy with my current team and I like most of the people I've worked with. Most people I deal with work hard. Thankfully, I work mostly with middle-of-career people with a great work ethic.
Thanks Everyone who replied. I am the one who did the original post. I think what I conclude is, if develop skils in AWS/Azure, I have a fair chance?
Sounds like you hosed yourself being 42 and not having any skills at this point. You still have 20+ years to gain some type of skills that are marketable. It may even take a move for you and almost certainly a pay cut. However, if you consider it wasted time please leave. You are cutting into how many jobs can be kept and their bonuses.
@1joh+17g9c6rs I saw a study once that something like 80% of people over the age of 50 will lose their jobs and never make that amount of money again. so if you get laid off at 52 making 200k, good luck ever making it again. tough to get employed especially for that much money. you need to have most of your money made by say 50 or so if you want to retire at a decent age/ net worth
Its funny with the age perceptions here in IT. I worked for Cisco from 27 to 37 years old in Enterprise. I was a young kid compared to the SEs and other CSEs. I mean if you are talking about working for the IT department sure. At 40 my skills and experience are invaluable to any company I talk with. Problem is for most at Cisco you get lazy and you don’t keep up on whats happening outside of Cisco. So I would say the issue is not with age, but with you assuming Cisco is always going to pay you to be lazy and keep your skills out of date. I would say out of my 19 year career, no one really hires me for anything I did at Cisco. In short 42 is young still. Go to a partner or another OEM and re-skill. Maybe a slight pay cut but it will be worth it in the long run.
Cisco is a dinosaur that is going extinct. If you get out you will be doing yourself a favour. I did 20 years there and for the first 10 it was dynamic, had great people and amazing culture but its now a money desperate, share price paranoid monster that spits out the good and the bad, makes poor choices and values nobody.
It had so much potential but greed and sloth and poor decisions at the top have k–led it.
My recommendation is to be proactive in your life. Never be controlled by a company. At 42 your time is limited in IT anyway. 8 years you will be 50 and target #1 where ever you go in IT. With that said there are some great opportunities. I tried hard to get in with the rail industry. Then pension alone is insane and well worth any minor pay cut.
Re-evaluate what you want to do with your life. You have a solid 20 years to continue working. Some things to consider is how much of the rat race do you want to be in? My friend found a state that offered lateral a lateral move into teaching. He started at 15 years of experience. He can retire in 15 years with 70% full pension of his final year salary which is estimated at $50k per year. On the 4% rule, that would mean he would have to invest and make $1.2M on top of what he already has in 15 years. That is not easy to do. He actually loves the job, never has to worry about the 6 month layoff cycle. Yes, there is another set of issues to deal with, but he says it is a cake walk comparatively. He says his wife is looking to teach now as well because it would pay more, take their pension to $100k per year, and they can travel most of the Summer.
People with lousy attitudes need to go! Cisco has been an awesome company that cares about people. I took the package after over 20 years. No bitterness, no issues, I’ll miss the people, the work, the company. Time to make room for the younger engineers. Thank you Cisco for all the good years!
Forget skills. It's not easy for people impacted by layoffs to land jobs after 45. Improve your network outside of Cisco.
There are plenty of highly skilled 45 year olds unable to land interviews.
Many talk about hiring a life coach. Am curious what do they do and why the recommendation, and importantly who is out there in Bay area ?
Not sure why you come here to complain about not taking the initiative to learn skills that can be used elsewhere. 42 is still young enough to learn a skill. I'd recommend learning what was already suggested as most things are moving to the cloud and that is a skill many others are looking for.
Why would anyone waste their time learning google cloud?
You can learn the required skills. 42 is a young age. Try to spend some time every day and get certified in AWS or Google cloud while you're waiting to get laid off. It's in your control and will pay off dividends.
42 better than 52 you’re still young.
There are many different organizations/functions at Cisco which offer many different opportunities. Find your niche and don't allow yourself to get stuck in a rat hole.
It's like that anywhere you go. It will work against you to stay too long at any one company. You just need to work very hard and save up $ for these types of situations later. Even if your boss likes you and no matter how safe you feel, at the end it is upper management that looks at salaries and headcount and will dispose of you regardless of your skills and loyalty to the firm. It's all about the bottom line and their jobs. Also if company goes out of business, you end up on the curb if you don't find something immediately. It is a sad reality but that is the pattern I am seeing based on these job sites. No one is really secure in his jobs.
There are too many people like you at Cisco. Atleast you are accepting your problems. That's a good start. You are 42 still young. Find a good mentor who can help you to understand marketable skills. You can work on acquiring those skills. Not difficult. Good luck.
Many skills acquired at Cisco are valuable at used car dealerships.