Like a lot of people who said "Leaving Cisco was the best thing I ever did", I'm happy with my decision to leave last year. However, I am curious to see if there are people on here who have left Cisco, and maybe regret their decision. I know this needs to be taken with a grain of salt, since most people on here are disgruntled ex or current employees, but would be interesting to see. Overall, I'm willing to bet the vast majority is happier on the outside
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CISCO is like he-l. Terrible management, no accountability, total loss of focus. I'm happy to go back to my last company. I won't ever work for CISCO again.
Way to bring back a dead post just to whine about a company.
I'm currently at Cisco for the third time. I left the first time involuntarily due to getting on the wrong side with a director who played favorites. When a new manager replaced my manager who took care of his team, the new manager made things so bad that most of the team transferred to other BU's or quit to take jobs at new companies. I thought I could wait him out as he never stuck around a team more than 2-3 yrs, but a mass LR happened and it was easier for him to LR me than to make up BS documentation for a PIP. I was pretty bitter about being forced to leave, but I was more mad at that manager/director than I was at Cisco.
I had what turned out to be a short term contract where the hiring manager lied about the work location saying that they wanted me to start in one location for on-boarding/training but I could transfer to a different location in 4-6 weeks. When they didn't let me switch locations after 6 weeks, I forced the issue at 8 weeks and suddenly I was being micro-managed and hated the job. I quickly found a new job and gave my two weeks notice, but because it included the week of Thanksgiving, they wanted me to work the Monday of the third week to make up for Thursday being a holiday. I didn't see any choice but to agree, but then they "fired" me on Wed the day before Thanksgiving.
The new job was much better, but it was working me to death. I was working 10-15 hrs of paid overtime, but I was burning out less than a year later when they offered to convert me to an employee. This meant I'd be working the same # of hours, but no longer getting paid for the overtime, which I was not excited about. At that time, a manager from Cisco contacted me about coming back as a contractor for 5 months, or 17 months while he worked to get approval to convert the contractor role to an FTE role and I jumped on it. It was 17 months, not 5 before I got converted and I was happy. Then senior leadership decided that every BU had to cut staffing by 10%, and my BU decided to implement that by making every team cut 10% and I was the newest person on a 10 person team, so I got cut. Again, not real happy with Cisco leadership, but this time I really couldn't be bitter with my manager or director. it was what it was.
This time I found another FTE role where I had a director who micromanaged the teams under them and it was terrible. At my 1 yr performance review, I was told by my manager that I was not living up to the expectations of my job title. When I asked why, he said I was doing too much junior work, so I asked for examples. Every example he gave were tasks given to me by the director to personally perform because they couldn't find the junior guy who was supposed to do the work and they "needed it done RIGHT NOW", so I did it. I told my manager so, and said that HE wasn't living up to his job title as a manager and managing his team because the director was managing it instead and the director wasn't living up to their job title as a director because they were managing and not directing. I said they needed to replace the junior guy with someone who would be at their desk doing their job so I'd have the TIME to DO MY job instead of theirs. Obviously that didn't go over well with my manager.
Someone mentioned "Lots of Indians doing goofy stuff to justify their contracts, nothing being done that made any sense." This company outsourced ALL their development to Ukraine. The code was cr-p. They were so busy on & off boarding Ukrainian developers because most of them couldn't write acceptable code, and the good ones quit for better jobs. Their US developers were busy fixing the offshore work or mentoring the Ukrainian developers, so they couldn't do any real development of their own.
Luckily, I received a call an hour after that conversation from a recruiter about a short term project at Cisco that was supposed to last 6 months & I said get me an interview. I had the offer from Cisco within a week and gave my two weeks notice before my manager/director could find a replacement for me so they could fire me for insubordination. :-) I was SO glad to leave.
That 6 months has turned into over 3 years. Do I like what's happening overall with Cisco? No. Have I liked all my Cisco managers or directors? No. Did I like most of my Cisco managers? Yes. Have I liked or loved my Cisco roles? He-l yes. Is Cisco perfect? No. But even with all it's warts, Cisco is way better than two of the three companies I worked at between Cisco roles and overall, better than all three.
If you read down to here, sorry for the long rant, but not all jobs/companies are better than Cisco.
CISCO is like he-l. Terrible management, no accountability, total loss of focus. I'm happy to go back to my last company. I won't ever work for CISCO again.
work anywhere in the country, great pay, 26 vacation days a year (after 15yrs), 11 federal holidays, flex work schedules, pension, sweet 401k, leaving work at 5pm, and having to answer to no one but yourself. f--- yeah
We were bought out by Cisco for probably $4B more than we were worth, Chambers was all gaga at getting to meet the Prime Minister and, to have a direct relationship to the Holy Land. I fired Cisco and left on my wife's birthday 20XX. It has been the best decision I have ever made regarding a career move. My direct supervisor of 19 years wanted to put a package together to keep me but I wasn't interested. Cisco laid him and other senior acquired executive off thereafter. Do not be afraid to check out, good things happen to good people!
Left 3 years ago. During the last 5 years there I did not get a single raise. Left for a higher paying job, better bonus plan and have been getting annual raises every year without missing a beat. I often wonder how much money I left on the table by being a loyal employee to Cisco.
I left in late 2013 when I saw the writing on the wall. Was at Grade 13, and the political infighting was getting ridiculous, a lot of hot air getting pumped into the market around our "capabilities." Recruited into another large-ish company (still in F250) whose stock has doubled since I joined and wondered why I hadn't jumped ship earlier when previous recruiters came calling. I still telecommute, which is great for work-life stuff, and I get far more autonomy now. New company is still big enough to do a variety of different things, but I've been able to find parts that are extremely entrepreneurial. Doesn't hurt that last year, my bonus paid out at 200%: THAT never happened at Cisco. It's not all flowers and rainbows of course (it's a big company after all), but objectively speaking, leaving Cisco was the best career and lifestyle and mental-sanity move I ever made.
I left a year ago. Initially was doubtful, but now.. looking back and reliving the layoff culture from the outside, I would never go back. No amount of money is worth the mental and physical strain of the political culture there.
The yearly mass layoffs have created an environment that stunts any kind of personal development. It has created cliques and silos of people who look after their own interests and nothing more. The new work culture is.. do whatever you can all year to isolate anything you have, so when layoffs come around you aren't first on the list. Sh--ty way to live.
All the people I know attached to Cisco ecosystem full time and contract workers 100% of them want to stay with Cisco
I was quite happy to get away from Cisco.
Lots of Indians doing goofy stuff to justify their contracts, nothing being done that made any sense.
Great post. I also follow similar attitude as yours. I never wear anything in Public which will identify me as Cisco employee, and therefore any transition out of Cisco will be easy. I'm always prepared for layoff, and work on my PlanB during my free time.
Left in 200x came back in 200y after 2 yrs from a closely competing networking co. My first year outside was happy..good manager good work no politics
...then mgr changed and lot of political fights among employee factions to get plum work and get visibility.
Mgr made life hell for me.
Been there since 200y and reasonably happy. I avoid poltics, do not kiss a**, have no godfather and so my batchmates who were lucky or political are one grade above.
But i sleep well at night as a IC. Work reasonable hours, do not randomly login at night to check mail and look after my fitness. I have time for family and at my age, every pain free day is a blessing.
All the people I know attached to Cisco ecosystem full time and contract workers 100% of them want to stay with Cisco and the those who left Cisco either returned or want to return so still ping me every now and then and have been trying. Grass is always greener on the other side. I have friends in Google who, except the job stability, pretty much complain about same things - slow decision making, hierarchy, company become too big, politics, increasing number of overqualified people doing jobs well below their capabilities like Stanford Grads in technical support working in shifts and so on. Every big corporation has one or other problem - Amazon, Microsoft, Apple and so on. We in Tech industry know Or heard about Amazon work culture. I know a person at GM level who works for Amazon. Having a weekend is luxury for him. He is getting tired of putting 65+ hrs/week. My two family members are Apple full time employees and so far I have not heard them praise Apple. They discouraged me from trying in Apple. They are hanging in there just for the job stability that's all.
I'm happy with my decision. I wasn't liking the direction Cisco took the last months.