I know some people prefer taking a long, well-deserved break, while others might be jumping right back into the job hunt process. Is there a route that people recommend more, through personal experience or otherwise?
7 replies (most recent on top)
John knows Chuck is slowly destroying his old company.
Does anyone remember Chambers' "we have 36 first priorities this year and we'll have 100 next year!" speech? The 40lb tablet with the tiny screen and the industry leading business application "flashlight?" The camera that overheated after three minutes of trying to charge it? The home telepresence system with a $60/mo fee when the world moved on to texting? When the poor billionaire had to take a bonus of tens of millions of dollars after seriously failing to meet his metrics as he couldn't put food on the table? The forced vacations where we had to be be on-call to respond to anything within 15 minutes even in development groups with no customer exposure? Three additional broken operating systems to further waste the majority of the development budget? The stock going from 82 to 8 and only at 25 when Chuck took over which Chuck has now doubled? The quarterly layoffs that began as far back as 2001?
Neither Chambers nor Chuck have what it takes to lead in completely new business segments which means Cisco is exactly what it was destined to be.
As if JC didn’t start the destruction of this company himself?
Why does Cisco continue to stab their employees in the back, and then be out on the podium saying they are the best place to work? Cisco leadership must be trained in brainwashing. No wonder Chuck and John Chambers don't get along. John knows Chuck is slowly destroying his old company.
Keeping my options wide, wide open. Got some freelance work, setting up a couple of small businesses, and applying for jobs. And meditating. A lot.
I’m going to Disneyland
I wasn't part of this lay off (or at least not until now), but I've experienced others in my career, and what I can recommend you is to first deal and really accept that you were laid off. This may sound obvious, but it isn't. At the end, it's still a loss regardless of how happy or unhappy you were at the company. It may take some days or even a couple of weeks depending on whether this was your first lay off or not.
Once you've accepted that fact, you can move on to the next thing. How soon? Well, that depends on your particular case. Some people may be paying a mortgage or alike while others don't have any extraordinary debt(s). At the end the circumstances will be the main driver.
I would probably take a couple of months off to unwind. Then start interviewing after that. I’m too burnt out to just jump right into interviews.