Juat thought I would come back and share my experience. This is clearly one of the most active boards here, for obvioua reasons.
I was with Cisco for over 10 years. I have patents. I always made a positive impact. I moved on every 3 years to a new team and technology.
Eventually you find yourself in the wrong spot at the wrong time. In 2014 I easily found another internal job through networking, my new team got hammered in 2015, and in 2016 I no longer cared. It was clear whatever I did I had a target on me, even though I got accolades and constant incentive awards.
I left un early 2017 even with an offer to stay on.
Since then I have worked for 3 dfferent startups. Crazy I know. But the reason is that by being recruited I have ended up making 25% more than I did with Cisco. More importantly, I feel VALUED.
Having been wilth Cisco for long, and observing all the floatong dead wood, i kinda understand tje company's hostility towards old timers, but I think ita formulaic and lazy approach damn near criminally discriminatory.
But all is well. I feel vaued elsewhere, where within Cisco there is a feeling of justified existential angst.
It is also nice to work in a true growth industry again, rather than in one facing consolodation and contraction.
I have a soft spot for Cisco despite the laat few miserable years among constant whimsical layoffs. Anyone that claims thw layoffs are performance driven is an imbecile - I have seen brilliant distiguished engineers get laid off because they were innthe wrong team.
But this wlill be commonplace in the networkong industry in general.
Best luck and know the job market is pretty good out there now.