People who were quick to quit during the Great Resignation and have found themselves caught in the tech layoffs are now regretting their choice to leave. A guy I know who joined Intel after leaving Cisco for much better pay is now unemployed after their latest round of layoffs. This is why I decided to stay. Even with constant cuts here, I still have a better chance of surviving than somebody new who'll be a victim of the "last in, first out" policy.
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Left end of last year and while I occasionally miss sitting in my underpants and doing nothing for weeks on end, leaving the toxic culture has done wonders for my mental health. I now work slightly more (not much), get paid 50% more and am actually appreciated at work. Not here to gloat, but just to say- goddam I wish I had made the shift 2-3 years earlier. You get scared and comfortable with the security you have at cisco and that's not a good thing.
Intel has their own problems. They took billions of dollars in government CHIPS funding and invested nothing. The money went to all their executives instead.
https://jacobin.com/2022/10/intel-layoffs-corporate-subsidies-chip-manufacturing
I left a top tech company when I wasn’t looking, because Cisco reached out and pursued me to offer what I thought was a growth opportunity. At every company I have worked for, I have been a top performer. I never had a chance to prove myself at Cisco, because there was a reorg soon after I started, then my role was eliminated. I took a chance and it didn’t work out. These things happen, however all who generalize that talent or performance is lacking in those laid off are discriminatory. Circumstances vary, roles eliminated, products retired, restructuring creates duplication, etc. etc. Stop judging the individual on what is often completely out of their control and nothing to do with their skills or performance.
I'm in the opposite of that situation, I left a comfortable job to come to Cisco at a better salary. I got LR'd right at my 1 year anniversary. What's funny is I literally asked my hiring manager "Cisco is known for layoffs, is there something you can say to that?" He was speechless, fumbling for words. Should've taken that as a sign.
OP, you could be hit by a lightening strike while at Cisco, leading to immediate death. Your laid off friend from Intel is unemployed but could be alive. Up yours, ok!
I still have a better chance of surviving than somebody new who'll be a victim of the "last in, first out" policy.
There’s your mistake, there is no LIFO policy and never has been. If anything LRs have tended towards a FIFO policy.
When LR policy is driven by OPEX reduction, and it has been since the first one I witnessed in 2011, you look at your most expensive people first. The Gary Moore years saw a focus on Managers/Directors/VPs that were sole contributors - when we had the span-of-control debate.
It’s rare that personality, or ability, is a factor in an LR decision. It’s been a completely impersonal process in my experience.
That said, and it’s a generalisation, the only times I’ve seen LR get personal is when someone wanted to leave and got their VP to ensure they were on the list. In other words, when it was to the benefit of the person being LRed.
An example, a colleague was due to retire and had named a date. The VP advised them to sit on it for a couple months. Then the 2020 ER was announced so they took that. The consequence being that he retired six months earlier than he had planned but got a payout equal to two years salary.
Another example, a colleague wanted to take an unpaid sabbatical, our VP (not the same as the previous example) suggested he wait a bit. Six weeks later the colleague was LRed with payout equivalent to a year’s salary. Twelve months later, that same VP hired them back into the same role on the same grade. Of course, there are other issues with the second case (broken service, lost RSUs, healthcare, 401k contributions etc) but at the time it suited that colleague, who is still in that job.
Cisco is a good place to be if you want to cruise along for a few years, doing what you are paid to do and nothing else, before your retirement whilst collecting a decent pay check.
At the end of the day, it’s all about making a good living while being relatively happy doing so. I’ve seen those ‘peers gain invaluable experience working for companies delivering cutting edge products and solutions’ leaving AWS after 2 years, then try another company, and another. Some even came back to Cisco. No IT skill is invaluable, you’d be very naive to believe that. Just because you’re at Cisco doesn’t mean you have to be complacent. Learn new skills if you feel like it, or do the bare minimum if that’s your thing. Don’t take life too seriously, you’re not getting out of it alive. Nobody in the nursing home is going to care that you replaced kubectl with kustomize in Project Foobar 6.2.
Life is too short to waste any more time at Cisco, so I am resigning after holiday shutdown and can't wait to begin my new job
For those with common sense, the two takeaways from this post are:
- When you realize you're working for a company that makes all of its money selling legacy products and solutions, you must decide if you're comfortable allowing your skills to atrophy while your peers gain invaluable experience working for companies delivering cutting edge products and solutions. If the answer is no, make a plan to find a new job immediately in order to begin growing the experience you'll need for the rest of your career.
- Anyone, not of retirement age, that quits a good-paying job without a well-defined plan for their next job is playing Russian roulette with their career.
Doubleplusgood. Yes, it is safer to stay here and wallow in a stew of perpetual mediocrity and baloney work politics.
What an uninspiring, dull, witless post.
Sure Chuck… I left, I don’t regret it. In fact, it doubled my disposable income.
I literally never met a successful person who let’s fear keep them from where they want to be.
Intel is no Cisco
@OP+1knyzQTb Ok Chuck!
My man created a post solely to gloat about not getting laid off. Epic.
So you're proud you didn't jump off the sinking ship or run out of the burning building?
So what does this mean? Are you gloating? And as disorganized as this layoff was..they could have stayed at Cisco and still have been laid off. Your post makes no sense.
I’m guessing there have been quite a few among the tens of thousands Cisco has laid off over the past couple decades who regretted staying.
Everyone’s situation is different and you have to make informed choices. If you are in a stable group doing work you like at Cisco staying may very well be the right option. Jumping to a company like Intel which has been having big problems for a while now was going to carry some risk even without a global downturn. I knew plenty who left Cisco in 2008 when things were far worse than they are now and they landed at solid companies. Good management knows when new talent comes in the door which is how many I know survived layoffs in their first few months at a job.