Thread regarding Cisco Systems Inc. layoffs

@jrdr+1qbEkV22 are you Chuck?

I was promoted once in 11 years. And I was a well loved upper manager at a previous company. My long time manager at Cisco always promised a promotion, but the "timing was not right".......I constantly heard that message. I should have bailed way before I did.

You aren't owed COLAs...

You aren't owed that, but it's darned stupid if your productivity is constant to accept an ever decreasing compensation for it. Make sure your skills are up to date and your professional network is there then confront management politely. If you don't get anything both of you will have confirmed it's time for you to move on.

"If you have met expectations for 5 years and no pay raise, you can ask for a inflation adjustment or talk to upper level for a pay raise. "
Funny, like this is a union job. Never listen to some ignorant kid or a GR6 ops guy saying what you should do. You aren't owed COLAs, raises, bonuses, anything. If you are a GR10+ in zone 2 and can't pay your bills, try a budget. You are being paid pretty decent for that area. Why not ask what you need to be doing to get to the next level or money. It sure isn't sitting on you duff whining and posting here. I ask what have you done this last year to separate yourself from others? "I've been in grade 3 years" or "I've been doing the same thing for 3 years and no one complains" are both as laughable as no reason at all.

If you have met expectations for 5 years and no pay raise, you can ask for a inflation adjustment or talk to upper level for a pay raise.
HR should get involved her and request the manager to give atleast an inflation adjustment. In my case, I spoke to upper management and requested them for a pay raise.
It also depends who is at the upper level.

3 years ago to G13.

some directors don't have any direct reports under them, how do you explain that?

When I saw it in the distant past it was a way to allow them to "take time off to spend more time with their family" instead of suffering the indignity of being fired.

some directors don't have any direct reports under them, how do you explain that?

If promotion means becoming a mgr, think again. Grade 10 or 11 as an individual contributor is the sweet spot. Mgrs at CSCO are scape goats for Directors. The juice ain't worth the squeeze

Too many losers on this board thinking their father owns Cisco.

You must be new to Cisco, here’s a pro tip: the only way get promoted is to leave and come back. You’ll still have a low salary though.

I noticed searching for "capability," "contribution" and "performance" on this page returned zero results.

I'm curious why anybody would continue working here if it really takes this long to move forward in your career.

Many decades ago before political correctness was the phrase "you can't have all chiefs and no Indians.

Talking about all companies, on the engineering side you need a small number of people driving the system level work and maybe an order of magnitude more doing the subsystem level architectures (yes, this is oversimplified.) The rest are taking on predefined pieces with the more senior also helping the most junior. This means there are fewer open positions at each higher level, and the reality is even if everyone had the ability to develop the talent to keep climbing few want to do what it takes to develop it so fewer people should be advancing to each higher level. The result is most engineers won't get beyond Senior Engineer (the third or fourth level) and either stay there until they are no longer employable or move into management.

Few companies care about your career, and you have to be willing to jump jobs if you want to keep growing. I lucked out in that I started at a great small company and learned what I needed to spend the rest of my career learning by taking on a wide range of roles there. Without that I probably would have joined a big company never knowing what I didn't know and have had a far weaker career, and the latter seems to be the case for most I've worked with.

Cisco isn't a company where career's grow. It's a place where career's come to die.

If you’re an Indian you’ll get promoted. Cisco is a black company, you will be black person after working for Indian managers inside Cisco.

Switch companies every 4 years if you care about higher compensation. Unless you are within the inner circle getting promotions it's not worth it to stay.

I watched a Program Manager get hired that is friends with a VP. She was promoted from Program Manager-> Manager-> Sr Manager-> Director within 4 years.

The fascinating part is she didn't have was successful initiative. It's all about strategic relationships at Cisco.

really depends on the BU as well. Some BUs that make a lot of money or doing the "next big thing" get promotion so often that 90% of the engineers in the BU are all technical leads. Then there are other BUs where finding just one technical lead or getting promoted to technical lead is rare.

Never. I came in at the highest IC level, so my only promotion chances are to leadership roles which I don't want, or on the track for a Principle Engineer's title, which I'm too old and not smart enough to achieve. I have enough work just staying current with technology to be good at my job and better than average. Trying to be the "expert" who can "solve" all the problems is just too much headache.

I get pay raises alternated w/ RSU's, so I'm willing to stay because I like my team, I like my role, and I like the work/life balance that I have. I make enough money to live comfortably and save for retirement and that's enough for me.

Sounds very much fcuked up.

It depends on your management chain. I've worked with people over 60 who rightfully never made it past Engineer 4 and some kids who never did anything more than fix small bugs who were titled Technical Leader. Cisco has far more grades than any other company I've worked at to give you the illusion of advancing.

I've seen several promos in my team in recent months. I always say "it's not what you know, it's who you know".

Three promotions in 15 years.

I’ve been here for a few years and I’ve only been promoted once. It’s so frustrating because my manager is completely clueless for the most part. I don’t think I’ve ever gotten any feedback from them.

Recently promoted. Three promos in 10 years.

The unfortunate reality is that businesses experiencing no growth can't afford to incur the additional costs of promotions. It's also why the constant LRs cull the most highly compensated individuals on their teams. The only way to grow profits in a no-growth business is to constantly lower costs.

Too long ago . But it is amazing if they cannot hold the carrot in front of you and you need to follow like a donkey sacrificing all for a promo. When you do not feel compelled to fill every meeting with talking to talk. Try it ! Can highly recommend it. Either way the only thing you control is going elsewhere for a job and the signing conditions. If that is not for you, feel free to look at your manager every cycle with puppy eyes.

It's long been Cisco practice to not promote people until they 're basically doing the higher-grade job already. Are you currently performing as expected by someone at the higher job grade? If so, you're better positioned for promotion than a same-grade teammate who isn't. The reality is, this IS a competition. Your manager might only be able to promote one worker. Will it be you?

At higher job grades, organizational need also plays a part. Does your team or group need another Grade 11 or 12 individual contributor? Such a role usually brings with it more responsibility, more independence, more influence outside the organization, and more of a hit to the salary budget. Maybe the nature of your team's work is such that your team doesn't need to promote anyone to a higher job grade right now. This concept can be he-l on morale, but it's a business reality. Best of luck to you.

you'll get a promotion twice a year if you're Indian reporting to Indian manager. For everyone else, it might take 5-10 years.

I have never been promoted in Cisco. Over eight years in the company. Three different managers.
I know that even in some hypothetical best case scenario I won't be promoted in next two years. But reality is that most probably I won't ever get promotion.
My manager was selling me this story about possible pay raise this year and promotion afterwards, but I figured he did it to keep me for now, because there is a hiring freeze in our org, and the team is understaffed. He knew I'm underpaid and the only reasonable move for me would be to find another employer which would affect ability of our team to deal with increased workload. Unfortunately I bought into his story, but now I know better.
The moment he balance out his resources and demands, he will continue the same story as before. Well, "fool me once" and all that...

Three months ago, from 11 to 12.