Isn't it too obvious that our competitors are gnawing at the bit to hire Cisco's top talent? And now said talent will be happily in the same markets selling against Cisco with joy?
15 replies (most recent on top)
I think the term is actually "champing at the bit"
People who claim Cisco doesn’t have top talent have not worked there.
I worked there. I worked with many Principal Software Engineers who not only couldn't write simple requirements, design or code but didn't even understand the difference between them. Their plagiarized white papers were self contradictory because they lacked the reading comprehension skills to know that. Words like coupling, cohesion, refactoring, scaling, etc... have no meaning to them even though they are relevant from junior high school introduction to programming assignments to large scale system design. As individual contributors they've been given the ability to make mistakes that cost the company tens of millions of dollars for each mistake.
Cisco has some awesome people, but the “leadership” class isn’t included.
Leadership includes but is not limited to managerial and technical leadership. The strongest engineers I worked with there were called "Technical Leaders," but management insured they never formed critical mass to do what they were capable of accomplishing.
You want to see top talent? Go to a lower margin company with fixed budgets that deliver on budget and on time over and over and over again on complex programs. You have to get the systems engineering right up front, often for many generations, to insure you don't do something for expediency that will choke you later on. Cisco's massive overruns, the astronomical technical debt, the money they spend addressing customer found defects and the money they spend addressing internally found defects would bankrupt such a company.
I can bet you not many in SBG where I am can find jobs. I know many who have been looking for a year
People who claim Cisco doesn’t have top talent have not worked there.
Exactly, I work in a BU with amazing technical people. They are rock stars, recognized at every industry conference, writing groundbreaking technology books, crushing plugfests, contributing to IEEE/ITU/IETF/etc standards, multiple distinguished speaker gongs at Cisco Live. Etc.
Cisco has some awesome people, but the “leadership” class isn’t included.
Experience also counts. Critical skills are how to troubleshoot a complex product in enterprise network work. Packet flows from wifi, switching, routing gear to external site. Skills like fixing it and knowledge of all the internal working of the product are critical.
Building a lab with multiple devices is also a skill. Testing and developing a product on it is also challenging.
Cisco has very top talent in WiFi, routing and switching. Many have left to other top networking companies in Bay Area.
Leadership and innovation and good management is lacking at top level. 20-30% are good at top level.
Most people - 75% - at Cisco are clueless and unemployable on anything like the $$ they make at Cisco elsewhere. Why else would they be there? The top folks got out years ago, top people don’t need to put up with the shitpile that is Cisco. Clueless political sycophants, good at PPT and shouting their mouth off are not skills wanted elsewhere.
Microsoft had 3 layoffs in 12 months. Now how many layoffs has Microsoft had in the past 15 years and compare that number to Cisco. the writing has been on the wall for years
Microsoft cut headcount 3 times in the past 12 months, Amazon lets at least 6% employees go every year, and Meta (Facebook) , Google all silent layoff every month, this is the tech industry, not just Cisco, every big Tech com run frequently layoff. If you believe you are top talent in a company, if you change job, it may have big risk lose your job very quickly.
Cisco is still around due to blank check government contracts, and lobbying for laws not allowing foreign competitors from selling network equipments.
What type of talented people work at a company with zero stock growth and 32 layoffs? Only a masochist or unskilled worker.
People who claim Cisco doesn’t have top talent have not worked there. Problems yes but good people are the only reason Cisco is still around
The only talent I've seen at Cisco has been those theyve brought from big tech companies. Too many long time engineers in Cisco without modern technical skills.
Instead there are lots of alliances, friends get the best roles. many pretend engineers who never learned modern technology. This is partially why Cisco is having a hard time competing to begin with. The other reason and very important one is lack of quality leadership.
Majority of good talent left years ago
the world knows youre looking for work because you been laid off. Not much leverage there.
Yes and it’s something that the ELT and senior leadership doesn’t understand or likely doesn’t care about.
It's not 2002. No talented people work at Cisco in 2024.
Just like no talented people work at Kodak or Xerox in 2024.