I don't believe that anyone is so untalented that after half a year of training and practice they can't start doing their job well. However, all of a sudden it's happening that the new hires, even after all that time, are failing to understand what their job is. I wonder if the problem is in training or hiring practices?
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Stock is at 61. What r u complaining about!! Not sure what the management is doing. But make sure you get ur rsu vested
Sorry, I have not posted much the last 2 days since the mods locked out my IP address — the anti-vaxxxers don’t like criticism.
I’ve been here 15 years and I don’t really understand what my job should be.
Most people are in the same boat - their daily grind is like an iceberg. There is 10% above water that is mandated by the management class (having only a single manager is an unattainable dream) — it is watched over, measured and (sometimes) rewarded. It is almost universally useless and a waste of time and money.
Then there is the 90% under water. This is the important work that the management don’t see and express zero interest in. This is devoted to doing customer work, answering RFI/RFP questions, Troubleshooting problems, updating designs and correcting documentation. This also includes collaborative work such as contributing to innovation, conducting research, taking training and following standards bodies.
This is the work that the customers demand, the management ignore and is never recognized nor rewarded. Those of you complaining about lack of promotion especially need to understand this.
It is very difficult for ANYONE at Cisco to understand what their job is these days, much less new hires.
I second what the poster below said - everything changes every few months. New leaders come in and "shake things up". Which really means - throw out any of your predesessors projects and make some new ones. Nothing gets done.
The new leaders also restructure the teams - laying off anyone who knows how to do anything. So now its the new hires with no info, leading the "new" new hires with no info. The blind leading the blind.
Beyond that, lately its seemed like our only "vision" and "goals" have been: hire more diversity, use more varied pronouns, please the stockholders, and forget completely about our customers and what they want (because that costs money and we don't have enough money for that).
We used to be a company doing things and going places. We used to make cool and innovative products in-house. We used to be at the forefront of networking.
The only way I see to get back there is for our leadership to wake up and take an entirely new direction. Stop doing layoffs (you can shrink when needed by attrition). Realize that the customers and employees are the lifeblood of a company and treat them that way.
A lot of problems are lack of or changing focus. Once you're half way to a goal, mgmt shifts focus and goals change, nothing ever gets completed. The people hired to do job a, now aren't strong in the goal of job b... problem is, mgmt wants job q done now and we're so far away from the original goal, everyone is lost.
Nah, training and hiring are as good as they have ever been (not real great but good enough).
Cisco just can't attract talent anymore because they underpay, layoff people every 6 months, and treat their employees badly.
Half the problem is how Cisco runs most projects/work. 25 hours a week of useless meetings full of buzzwords but no content. Where people are not allowed to voice any real opinions or do anything that rocks the boat, but everyone needs to talk for face time, so they just say nothing with lots of words. And fake powerpoint data and slides.
No one really knows how to do much to help the company because if you ask questions or make disagreeing statements, you are instantly pegged as either someone who is stupid or as a trouble maker who is rocking the boat. New hires quickly learn to keep their mouths shut.
Learning how to get work done in that armosphere takes about half a year.
The other main problem is that talented people are not looking to work at Cisco. Its old news, with old technology. And Cisco's sh---y reputation as an employer has been getting around.
The few talented people who do get roped in to the Cisco experience, learn what they can, tough it out for a year or two for their resume, but aren't invested in the company because they are planning exit strategies 2 months in.
Couple of issues as I see it.
- Duh-versity
- Youngsters now are lazier than previous gens
- Why would anyone who wasn't pathetic start their career at this dumpster fire of a company?