Thread regarding Cisco Systems Inc. layoffs

You want a retirement lifestyle with big promotions and salary increases. That’s generally not how the world works.

Take the G12 position. You can cause losses on the order of tens of millions of dollars while not providing any upside to offset that and get that G13 promotion as long as you have the “right” (politically powerful yet staggeringly incompetent) management. It’s a proven path in multiple BUs. Just make sure they are the “right” management.

Very interesting. Comments inline with what my connection explained; I see it is hard then for technical folks to go beyond G12. That is not only particular to Cisco I am sure. That is what is going on. Thanks all who posted intelligent comments.

Also, thinking that you can leverage a title from another potential outside company to get a 13 will get you the door.

No, seen it happen twice in the last year, where somebody to,d the execs they had a offer and were leaving and they gave them 13 i mediately. But don’t rely on it.

I would guarantee you won't come back as a 13 - ever unless you come in as a director +. I can not think of one person brought in as a technical 13 from the street. Not that it hasn't happened but I've not seen it. Also, thinking that you can leverage a title from another potential outside company to get a 13 will get you the door. Not going to happen as that is a VP and committee level approval and the program to go there internally from a technical standpoint is 2-3 years after nomination. If you think you are all that then leave. You are 2-3 years out at best if you are even worth it as a 12. This is the reality of a principal at cisco.

A cloud company. That's original, not! Sure, most of them are growing. At AWS you'll be nothing but a pawn in a well-oiled hierarchical process-driven machine. AWS employees are cattle. Cisco employees are pets. Granted, Cisco pets aren't getting the love they would from that old cat lady across the street, but they are pets nevertheless. Anyway if you get a Principal role at a Cloud company, that certainly does not guarantee a GR13 if you ever come back to Cisco. If you want to stick around at Cisco, be honest and transparent with your leadership: explain what you like and what you don't, why you're considering another company and discuss your career expectations. If another company is willing to give you the equivalent of a GR13, Cisco should be able to match that.

If you get principle at a cloud company you will not want to come back to cisco, ever.

Reason I want to go back:
At least in the group I worked for over 5 years, work-life balance was the best. Plenty of training sponsorship too.

Outside of Cisco, yes I have had exposure to cloud, modern software dev opportunities. But workload has been brutal. If I can go back working for known team, I will. I just need to be careful because drawback is that promotions and salary increases at Cisco are rare.

Cloud companies are growing. Cisco is not. That should answer your question.

What if there is a reorg? There's no stability at Cisco anymore.

reorg, layoff, reorg, reorg, layoff, layoff, reorg, reorg

You don't explain why you want to go back? Sounds a little masochistic to me. Ask yourself this: how long can you count of working for a manager you know at Cisco? And why is that more important than moving forward with a Cloud company?