How much have you been able to expand your skillset here?
That was my lightmotive when I applied for a job at Cisco, I thought I would gain a lot of new skills here. A few years later, I am not happy with the skills I have acquired. A friend who went to another company made much more progress in that regard. It’s not that I didn’t want to learn. The thing is, there wasn't enough opportunity for me to significantly expand my skillset at Cisco.
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I can't say I acquired skills, at least not something I can bring to a job interview. My problem is that managers give interesting, skill building tasks to their favourites, or they allow them to incorporate some new frameworks in our software that serves only to their Resume building.
I made steps to learn new stuff. As an example, I went on that course for ML that lasted several months which was payed by Cisco (thank you !). But the problem is that I have never had a chance to use that knowledge in practice. And I believe, just like one of my professors at the University, that programming is like playing instruments: without practice, and just learning theory, it won't work.
Partially, the problem is with the company: when Cisco needs something new, Cisco just acquires company that has already built it. :(
The other problem is the people and the culture: if my team ever gets anything ML related to work on, these tasks will be given not to people with knowledge, but to the manager's favourites who will then learn and practice it in the same time.
I'm a red badge and I've contracted at a number of large corporations. That's been the only way I've been able to increase my skills. It's not just being exposed to something new but having a task to do with it. At least, that's how I learn best. Contracting isn't for everyone but it's great for increasing the skillset.
“ What's quite unfortunate though is that once someone has acquired skills that are in high-demand, they get snatched by competition because Cisco doesn't provide enough opportunities to apply some of those skills.”
+1 on the statement above. This where Cisco needs to do/be better.
There are two approaches: either you expect your job to teach you new skills, or you proactively acquire new skills. One is a form of passive learning, the other is a form of active learning. I don't mean that in a negative way, it's just how I would categorize these options. I prefer the active learning option myself and Cisco provides sufficient means for anyone to acquire new skills that way. I do agree that on-the-job acquisition of new skills (outside networking of course) isn't always easy inside Cisco. What's quite unfortunate though is that once someone has acquired skills that are in high-demand, they get snatched by competition because Cisco doesn't provide enough opportunities to apply some of those skills. It's a shame though. That is where CX should really reinvent itself into a pure product-agnostic consulting firm.
I took it upon myself to learn skills relevant to my customers needs and also show initiative to senior management. I was rewarded with TAC cases. That didn’t last long; another big company recognized what I was doing and the rest was history. Too many people are rewarded for mediocrity in Cisco these days. It’s a sad sight to see.