People worry too much about whether they will get laid off or survive the next round, forgetting that the most important thing is the skillset! If a person is continuously trying to upgrade their skills, then there is no problem - - - they will easily find a new job even if they get layoff here. However, it seems to me that most are less and less interested in expanding their skills here at Cisco? I wish I wasn't right.
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No sh1t Sherlock ...
People in their late career are highly valued as consultants and manager/director level employees. 50's isn't the end of a career at most places. Cisco just likes to get rid of experienced people who cost more.
They don't realize you can't keep doing that and expect to get anywhere as a company. You just get a bunch of young people who make all the mistakes at your company, get educated and trained at your company, then jump ship for somewhere that will pay them long-term.
Happens in TAC all the time. We train someone for two years then they leave for our competitors because there is no valid/easy path to promotions.
Good luck applying to jobs as an engineer in your 50s
I can never understand how people can have the attitude that employees who are over 40 are obsolete and worthless and young pups who just got out of college and have never had to solve problems caused by hardware, software or operating system upgrades are the people to hire. Companies need new blood and people who know the newest languages and software, but where do they learn what industry best practices are? The Internet? Who solved the problems and documented the best practice(s) that they're finding on the Internet? People who've gone though this once before are the ones solving the problems and sharing it on the Internet.
Do you not think you're going to get old? Or somehow by the time you're in your 50's things will have changed and you'll be current in the newest tech and be as marketable as you are today? Or that you'll create some really cool thing that will revolutionize everything and you'll be retired & rich by the time you're 50?
I can't wait until you're my age and you have to face this problem and see just how smug you are then. Capitalism is getting worse and the demand for greater profits is creating the demand for lower costs, the easiest of which to cut is payroll, so you're not going to get rich young and be able to retire before you hit the age at where your experience is too expensive and companies decide to try to get more work done by throwing more cheap bodies at it instead of paying for experience.
Your network is your job security. There are plenty of unemployed former Cisco engineers. Good luck applying to jobs as an engineer in your 50s
At Cisco you have to control your own destiny on staying current on skills. Management would love if everyone kept their head in the sand on the products customers don’t see value in. That’s how they control how much they pay you, and how much recruiters will value you. Don’t fall for it. Learn cloud, Python, Linux, SQL, data analytics, k8s, etc…and watch what happens. 😉