I left Cisco on my own after 13 years and returned to Oracle...after a 15 year hiatus.
Did you know that 100% of all the managers and their management chain I had at oracle are still at Oracle 20 years later, and ZERO percent of my Cisco managers and chain over the last 13 years are still intact. That speaks for itself.
Been at CSCO for almost a decade. Have been to exactly ZERO retirement parties. Do the math.
While you are at Cisco, try to learn as much as you can...do you really, really, really, understand the technology? If you do...there is a big world out there...I wish they would have kept this ol' LR'd troll but since they didn't...their loss...
I was LRed in August...and yes, I'm doing great. I'm one of the "lucky" over 50 peeps who can't find something permanent so I'm consulting for much more money. A lot of companies are doing very well out there and appreciate experienced people like me. I think what people are missing is that Cisco is too big a ship to change, and Chuck doesn't know what to do. I was excited when he came in but he made bad hiring decisions and even worse technology decisions. Cisco is going the way of Sun Micro, it'll dwindle and dwindle until someone buys it. This isn't a career company, IMHO.