The culture and environment that Chuck & Co have created is so toxic. This once great place to work will never recover.
I was LR'd last August after 11 years at Cisco. I wanted out of that awful environment so I began my job search in April of last year. The stars aligned and I got an external job offer the same day I was LR'd in August.
My advice to anyone still at Cisco is to always have a Plan B.
The place is toxic and, sadly, it will never ever recover to what it once was.
For those who are young and capable, it is best for you to leave Cisco as early as you can.
And if you're not in San Jose go where? Arista is doing well, but not as well as it should. Apparently Microsoft's almost as bad. AWS is apparently worse in many respects for politics. Ericsson is down the toilet. Nokia will continue to decline. Oracle is... oracle. Dell is a viable option if you have server chops, but still an American BS driven company. Juniper - they still around? Honestly, Ciena looks to be a viable option. HP Enterprise? ROFL. The whole enterprise infra sector is in decline.
For Chuck, he at least got rid of Pankaj (finally and thank God!).
Agreed. But he's been replaced with YK and others who are ... clueless? 4 levels of SVP => politics all day long. Seriously. Cisco execs are generally **** at tech, business, or leading/managing people. Span of control needs to be applied aggressively at Senior Director and above. Cisco's starting to look like Ericsson - ridiculous.
Cisco has classic set of problems: Right problem, wrong execution <= non-technical exec. Wrong problem, good execution <= non-commercial exec. Right problem, right execution, wrong time, no GTM <= DW's group.
Higher profit margin days are long over. Get adjusted to thiner the margin with larger volume in sales or market will force on a death row. Cisco's golden days are long over.
we will see about this
Hi OP, the work environment is indeed toxic but I am not sure that we should blame Chuck for all of these. I think the toxic started with Tefelon John, Padma, Pankaj, and all their cronies. Most of them are still around hurting the execution and screwing up the business. For Chuck, he at least got rid of Pankaj (finally and thank God!).
Thanks for your advice. Having a plan B is always necessary. For those who are young and capable, it is best for you to leave Cisco as early as you can. The company is filled with nepotism and villiagism. Not the right place to build your career.