Thread regarding Cisco Systems Inc. layoffs

"Work hard to be in the position you want. Work even harder to earn my respect"

How did that work out for you? What's your current role and how long have you been at Cisco?

If you are 40+ and have been in IT for the majority of your life, good for you! If you've proven your worth via hard work, long hours, and dealt with all the aggravations that are present in any IT company, my hat is off to you. If you have managed to put up with those who like to sling names like "boomer" and have smiled as they quit, or were canned, outstanding.

To those of you who have just graduated college, have a poor attitude for those that are twice your age, for expecting six figures, a corner office, and expect us to pay your tuition because you want six figures, a corner office, and a new BMW... EARN IT! Work for what you want. Work hard to be in the position you want. Work even harder to earn my respect.

The kids here leaving negative comments about someone senior who has adapted to technology shifts for decades. You are a du----s and I have new hires from Stanford, MIT, Cal, etc. they want senior positions but are just not prepared to contribute. Don’t fear technically skilled people!!

"MUCH tougher to make the big bucks starting out."

Not true. It won't happen at Cisco, but it can elsewhere.

Decades? Good boomer, GTF0. Make way for us millennials so we can fix up your junk.

My last day is tomorrow. 5+ years.

@3zix+1fJGh2Vm as opposed to the glory days, when every switch ran a different OS?

I am done, I want to ride my bike on some gnarly trails. Bye Cisco.

Cisco really doesn't develop innovative products like the past. It is all acquisition. The problem is every acquisition is a different product and different UI. Nothing looks at all similar. Rather just a hodgepodge mess of stuff with nothing much in common. Cisco is now becoming more of a distributor of acquired products.

The few things that are recently developed internally are a disaster. DNAC, SDA, ACI, Nexus Dashboard, code-conversion of Viptela to IOS-XE, FTD (ASA bolted to Sourcefire), etc.

Let's hope that the world of 2022 figures out how to harness the positive power of technology to get us through this year.

Day after day, over these past weeks it feels more and more like we are headed increasingly onto a world path where instead of doing good, technology will instead increasingly enabling the spread of great harm and pain across the world.

Those that cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. Will we all ever learn.

Wow, OP and many others described my exact feelings and thoughts. And my guess is that all of you are from different culture(s) than myself. I find it comforting in a way to know that there are so many of us feeling the same, while coming from different walks of life and different corners of the World.

Maybe the OP's sentence: "The thought of starting over, at a new company, and going through the same thing over again disgusts me." explains why I can't make myself to work on preparing for job interviews and to start looking for a new job. I guess I don't expect it to be much better, and going through all the same s... just invokes that feeling: "Oh no, not again !"

I'm still not sure how exactly corporate world ki---d my passion. I have some ideas, but I'm sure about them. All I know is that my passion is dead.

Sadly I fear the opinion of the OP resonates with a ton of people in the current tech sector in Cisco atleast. And could not agree more with live below your standards, have some form of equity on the side so you can tap out and chase different paths of life.

I don't think this feeling is exclusive to Cisco. When turning 50, some realize life isn't going to last forever and wonder what's the point of investing all your remaining precious time in a nonsense job? All our jobs in IT are just superfluous. We don't make the world a better place, we just make rich people richer. Our must valuable currency is time, folks. When your health degrades and you can't do all that you had planned, it's too late.

Working in the corporate world, especially tech can be quite lucrative if you keep your wits about yourself. Live a simple, minimalist life, save and invest the majority of your paycheck, and don't concern yourself with political nonsense at the workplace. Avoid the hedonic treadmill, keeping up with the Joneses, and one day you'll be free as a bird.

The whole point is to game the system and beat it at its own game. I have no idea what people are talking about when I see posts about careers and growth and "challenging myself". People that care about things like that are misguided.

While I was at Cisco one of my colleagues was your typical blowhard: working himself like a dog to gain favor from his superiors who openly despised him while complaining nonstop about I'M NOT BEING TREATED FAIRLY AROUND HERE. Dude had all kinds of medical problems and visibly aged a decade every year. Me...I treated the office like it was Club Med and I was on a perpetual vacation (does Club Med even exist anymore?).

Guess what...when our group got the axe we both ended up straight in the unemployment line. All of that effort and he ended up in the same spot as the office slacker.

Play the game and play it to win. Never work hard, only marks believe in hard work.

Don't worry - Cisco is notoriously age adverse. If you're there after 50, you won't be much longer.

@1tny+1fJGh2Vm - -

I'm 55. Started on this stuff in 1989. Long live Cisco AGS+, Token Ring, Baynan Vines, Novell

https://hackaday.com/2021/09/13/cisco-router-repair-revives-piece-of-internet-history/

https://storage.microsemi.com/en-us/support/_eol/ethernet/em-595/install_sw/dos_odi.htm?nc=/en-us/support/_eol/ethernet/em-595/install_sw/dos_odi.htm

To Install and Configure the DOS ODI Driver
If you are using the VLM DOS Requester, you can run the automated Novell NetWare Client Install that comes with Novell NetWare:

1. Run INSTALL from your Novell install diskette labeled WSDOS_1
2. At STEP 4 during the install process, remove the WSDOS_1 diskette and insert your Adaptec diskette, specifying \DOSODI as the directory location for your adapter driver.

Otherwise, to install the DOS ODI driver manually, follow the instructions below.

1. Boot your system under MS-DOS version 3.1 or later.
2. Insert the Adaptec setup diskette into drive A:.
3. Copy the \DOSODI directory on the Adaptec setup diskette into your workstation's Novell NetWare directory (usually called \NWCLIENT)
4. Using a text editor, edit your AUTOEXEC.BAT file so that the driver is loaded between Novell NetWare's Link Support Layer and the network protocol, as in this example:

LSL.COM
EMPCI.COM
IPXODI.COM
VLM.EXE

7. Save and exit the AUTOEXEC.BAT file.
8. In the NWCLIENT (or your workstation's Novell NetWare directory) create a file named "NET.CFG". The following examples should offer some guidance:

Example NET.CFG Sections
Novell NetWare 3.11 Example:

Link Driver EMPCI
Frame Ethernet_802.3
Protocol IPX E0 Ethernet_802.3
Protocol IPX

Bind #1; binds IPX to first frame type listed in
"Link Driver EMPCI" section

Novell NetWare 3.12, Novell NetWare 4.x Example:

Link Driver EMPCI
Frame Ethernet_802.2
Protocol IPX 0 Ethernet_802.2

"Many colleagues are in the same boat - many want out of tech field."

Welcome to America. It's not just tech... or the corporate world

If you've been a cattleman, you know what bu-----t smells like. If you've been in tech 20+, same thing.
I punched out at 53 and I'd rather slam my tongue in a metal file cabinet than go back.

That said, somewhere way back in my past, I thought I was done. I switched companies and realized that I actually truly loved tech. I was programming at the time. I worked another 20 years and loved it, but I changed my focus every 5 to 7 years to keep myself learning and fresh in the noggin. Maybe a new company with a better team would change your perspective. Try a $50M-$100M company with <3000 employees. The flavor is totally different.

I can give anecdote after anecdote backing up OP's sentiment, like I have on this site a million times.

But I am NOT this time.

I just want to say I am sorry you feel like this. You're obviously not alone. I hope leadership wakes up and does something.

Many colleagues are in the same boat - many want out of tech field. I know I just want to move out to the middle of nowhere, buy land, and just live off the land. In my mid 30s, been doing this since I was 19.

I think everyone who has been around a long time feels like this. Including me. We have been around people and companies for so long that we are scornful of the new sh-t that keeps coming out every 5 minutes with changes in focus. That said, Cisco does seem remarkably adept at totally confusing all of its employees.
Party will be over for me too in three years when I am out of this and retiring in my mid-late fifties, hopefully.

Didn’t write that, feel the same.
21 years at Csco.
30+ Total.
Age 52.

How old are you, if you don't mind?