I am done with living a quarterly life of Cisco uncertainty. I could never plan my life beyond 3 months due to constant worry of LR. After living that crazy life for years I am finally sailing off to a promised land where life will not only be predictable but my skills, experience will be honored, valued. I won't be surrounded by cronies and backstabbers because in the new promised land, all that matters is outcome, results and not who you know, brown nosing and buttering.
15 replies (most recent on top)
I left voluntarily six months ago after 10+ years for a growing company with an excellent culture and 35+% more pay. I was sick of the layoffs. I couldn’t be happier and wish I’d done it at least two years earlier. I don’t envy my friends still at Cisco. The culture is not what it was, and there are so many better companies to work for and the job market is hot.
Months after exit i still get nightmares seeing myself in the war room triaging 12 hours a day problems caused by others but blamed on my bucket until proven otherwise and managers roaming around doing the N->A ddts thing . Things in routing side are bad to extent devtest can only trigger a issue and then wait for developer help with system in broken state. The senior and good ones all laid off or left on their own. Tac also needs BU help for things they used to easily handle earlier - guess lot of churn there too.
Hahah...a dream place like this stays in your dreams.
Dear OP, in what world are you living in? What "promised land" are you talking about and who made that promise to you? I have a bridge to sell you in Brooklyn, NY.
I've been at several companies post-Cisco and life was definitely NOT predictable. I was told my skills and experience would be honored and valued, but was not. Too many people on the team who didn't have that experience or skills tried to drag me down and resorted to backstabbing to make themselves look better.
One place worked me to death, but paid overtime so the money was good until I got burned out. The other place had far too much micro-management where a director kept asking me to do work below my job description and my manage faulted me in my performance review for not living up to my job title because I was too busy doing the work of lower-level team members. No one wrote documentation except me and the rest of the company tried to keep their knowledge in their heads to make themselves indispensable.
| ...all that matters is outcome, results and not who you know, brown nosing and buttering.
Wow. You do know that the brown fecal matter rolls downhill, don't you? Directors are not going to take the fall when they made bad decisions and their underlings could not pull off the project. It's one thing to trim poor performers, but there will always be an element of passing the buck.
Let me know where this "promised land" is. I'd love to go there too.
I left Cisco on my own terms this time last year after a 19 year career in IT (RTP). It was super scary starting over but it was the best career decision I've ever made. Your mileage may vary of course, but it's definitely worth looking getting yourself out there. And for those of you that fell under the ax...consider this the start of what could be an incredible journey! My only regret was leaving that severage package behind. :-(
Readi g this echos my experience, I left Cisco last year on my own choice after years of fearing the axe, have just had my 1 year anniversary at my new company where I feel valued, and am not treated as a commodity to discard when the share price needs to be hiked , or when the company wants to pay obscene hiring bonuses to new execs... best thing I ever did was leave Cisco...
Good Luck, I was forced to jump the ship and was the best thing that happened to me.
ur going on welfare?
Cisco guys,
You want to know what real toxicity is?.....Juniper.
My former colleagues who are still at Cisco all hate working there.They stay because they pay well and have family considerations.But many are looking to jump ship.They had enough of the stress and constant layoffs and lack of communication coming from the leadership.Cisco is getting a well earned reputation of being a disfunctional company with a toxic and stressful environment.
Your right, who wants to work in an environment like that.You have people getting promoted who shouldn’t even be with the company.And then you have people getting layed off who should be promoted.If you have other options stay far away from this culture and company.I worked for major companies and this by far the most toxic environment and mismanaged company of them all.Glad I’m not with them anymore.The way they treat workers is disgusting.
Better avoid Indian managers for a better life
Good luck brother. Your sentiments echo my feelings too on leaving cisco. Time to get into real work again.
All the very best. I hope to find something soon too :(
Good luck in this utopian world. Given the human nature of bosses and human interactions, I've yet to find an employer that manages strictly by outcome and results, and not by who you, know brown nosing, etc.