We don’t have any long-term plans, no competitive development ideas. LRs and reorgs have become frequent to the point that they are testament to leadership incompetence. I assume many of us would enjoy working for a winner, or at least a company trying hard to be one. I would. I take no pride whatsoever in still being here.
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Cisco is trying to find it's identity after networking and switching... without a solid identity and brand, it's difficult to express a vision to your customers, employees, and others.
There do seem to be some good focus areas though - even with some reasonable possibilities. We could be market leaders in security (and have a good foundation of product lines to do so). We could also be market leaders in Full Stack Observability (FSO) Cisco created the full stack observability idea - we might as well lead the creation of the solution.
well then quit loser. nobody cares about your whining. if you aren't getting ahead, then its YOU not them. plenty of people are doing very well here. You prob don't get treated well because they WANT YOU TO LEAVE. so go...and save the rest of us from having to parse your baby whining while we look for something constructive on this site (DBAG).
@gqu+1qYCWkZS, this is the second time I've seen this reference or a very similar one. I'm drawing a complete blank and the Internet is failing me when I search for it. Care to give a hint? :-)
I don't necessarily agree w/ the statements that Cisco doesn't care if its employees grow in their jobs or skills. I've been lucky to be on teams where they have a budget for training and it's part of our annual goals/performance reviews to complete at least 2 training courses each year. I know several of my managers have asked what I wanted to do moving forward, whether it was to pursue a management track, a principle engineer track, etc. I'm sure there are teams, groups, or even BU's that may not care, but I've never been in one.
At my age now, management and principle engineer are out, but they 100% have been focused on encouraging me to take courses on new technology. I'm not supporting the legacy network boxes, so what we're working on gets to use the newest versions of stuff, gets to be built to run in the cloud in containers, etc.
But, 100%, it's on the employee to keep their skills current and relevant, and to try to advance. If a company won't (help) pay for training, keeps you too busy to take training, or otherwise puts obstacles in your way, then you should leave for a company that encourages you to keep your skills current and expanding.
All these posts are very accurate. If you read through them, think of how negatively customers are impacted by what Cisco Leadership has created. Customers see less and less value in Cisco. Cisco is still a premium.
They've reduced value in the entire organization with poor quality, going after Sales commissions, gutting competent service employees, and lower and lower grade levels. Think of Sales leadership that won't stand up to Maria Martinez. Cisco went downhill the moment she arrived. She pushed out so many good leaders. She's elevated so many bad leaders in Alistair Wildman and the team of misfits under him. Some great leaders are still there, but they've been pushed aside and marginalized to where they aren't as good anymore because the leadership system above them won't allow them to lead.
Leaders in Cisco no longer listen to the people. They don't get honest feedback. We used to do Pulse Surveys that were taken seriously, candid and real feedback, and serious actions taken for months to address concerns. Now, it's the worthless Team Space surveys. Everyone I talk to tells me they aren't honest about those. They tote the party line to fly under the radar. I don't blame anyone. We're all doing it. We know you have no choice.
Cisco is home to lazy or zero ambition workers uninterested in improving their earnings or career
Otherwise, employees will be hopelessly waiting for the company to do something good for them.
The corollary is people who are growing their skills at other companies as well as on their own time are moving ahead as you fall behind. The company is not mother, the company is not father (an upvote for anyone who gets the reference.)
LRs and reorgs have become frequent to the point that they are testament to leadership incompetence.
Layoffs have been going on, sometimes quarterly for the past 23 years at Cisco. Somewhere around 10-15 years ago Cisco's own executives stated that annual layoffs are the sign of a poorly run company. The fact that this is just dawning on some and many at Cisco still haven't figured it out tells you all you need to know about why Cisco is losing market share and will likely continue to do so.
Cisco couldn't care any less if its employees don't grow in their jobs/careers or if their employees feel like they don't accomplish anything. This comes from the days when employees were all given stock options so the leadership rightly believed that the employees were being compensated extremely well due to the massive annual growth of the company - which also led to great career opportunities.
Of course, today, stock at Cisco is reserved for senior employees and growth is nonexistent. Unfortunately, the company's perspective on employee satisfaction is stuck in the halcyon days of massive growth. This is why it's so critical for each employee to take their own job/career success into their own hands. Otherwise, employees will be hopelessly waiting for the company to do something good for them.