A manger told me once: “if you want to be a manger you have to lie”. Then the hasshole has been promoted director.

Missed the earnings call. Any amount set aside for an LR?

Scott Herren always came across as the one member of the ELT who genuinely disliked doing LRs. He seemed like one of the good ones. Glad he’s getting out with his soul still intact.

"Effective immediately"

Cisco will have some bullsh-t statement with a similar quote as well. == Microsoft on Tuesday said that it’s laying off 3% of employees across all levels, teams and geographies. “We continue to implement organizational changes necessary to best... — read more 

...is not Tariffs. It is immigration policy (H1B expirations, deportations and fear). Cisco is shifting to India. If you doubt this, look at the internal directory. It is the failed RTO. Cisco's bread and butter is failing. Cisco sells network... — read more 

I doubt many still read this, but I know plenty of you are still in touch with folks who were laid off. I'm just curious whether most of them have landed new jobs or if some are still searching. I'm starting to worry my number might be coming up... — read more 

Hearing a lot that RTP might be done for. Can anyone confirm?

At sales offsite now. Blood bath imminent. Telling everyone I know became eff these losers.

Sign the waiver not to sue, collect one month severance, and get the he-l outta here First time since “unlimited VTO” no pay for time earned, Lucy to collect one month

I have seen the list. A 15% job reduction is planned. The company will announce a 5% LR but continue to cut workforce 'unofficially'. Some folks will be 'pushed' to leave on their own, others will be moved around to a different team, then they will... — read more 

SBG

Anyone else stuck in this weird limbo of dreading layoffs but low-key hoping for the severance package? Part of me fears the instability, but another part sees it as my ticket out of this sinking ship. The fact that we're even debating whether... — read more 

There is a hatred for good engineers in DC these days. If you don’t su=ck up to your VPs, you will be made to leave. Doesn’t matter how good you are and what you contribute. They need slaves and yes men. Both the VPs promotion picks if you see... — read more 

Massive layoffs every six months. Massive H1B hiring. Do the math.

2024 H1B Data - Cisco H1B Data for 2024 (source below) Role (Count of Role) Grand Total (1,323) SOFTWARE ENGINEER (177) SOFTWARE ENGINEERING TECHNICAL LEADER (65) ENGINEERING PRODUCT MANAGER (44) TECHNICAL CONSULTING ENGINEER (38) SOFTWARE QA... — read more 

Can someone search the directory and tell me how many principal engineers Cisco got?

Arista keeps eating cisco lunch and growing top and bottom lines. Where is cisco ELT team plan?

Google updated their pay structure. 2 days later Amazon updated their pay structure. Cisco will update theirs next year. Are you telling me, this isn't coordinated?

After getting laid off how was the experience coming back as a contractor

Some came from the future, some from the same team and many had no idea what team they were on...

LinkedIn is flooded with Quantum Networking at Cisco. New hype? Latest buzzword? Do we even have a BU for quantum?

I keep hearing about some agentic AI security product that just passed its series B. Some security engineers under SS that got sc--wed over badly now running a competing company. Was this the Hypeshield team or some other group?

May is Mental Health Awareness Month. Let’s talk about our feelings, emotions and general state of our mental health!

My directory (2x CCIE) told me this... Is this true?

Can this community share about Cisco’s main competitors pls. Who is taking market share? Who is mgmt most worried about? Appreciate your input!

BIC PAY Cisco TAC: $500 Regular $750 Holiday Palo Alto TAC: $1000

I hate saying this, but the paycheck is the only reason I’m still at Cisco. The money’s way better than anything I've been able to find right now, and that’s the sad part. It keeps me putting up with all the nonsense here. Maybe new hires don’t have... — read more 

What’s the latest now on this? A year ago it was all over the place - now it’s AI defense? Anyone tracking hype vs reality?

I have been asked by management to take my certification seriously. Does getting CCIE provide an extra layer of job security or any status or it’s just a bunch of baloney and gets me nothing. I know many very smart with CCIE were let go last year. ... — read more 

Huawei has first pick on China’s elite STEM talent — the largest STEM pool globally It operates like a monopsony on top-tier engineers Its org structure allows rapid reallocation of R&D to new product adjacencies Comparable to Samsung... — read more 

Cisco needs to look into the complete waste of the Chicago office. Those responsible for this should be LRd. The office is very under utilized. Cisco employees do not show up unless forced to. Customers do not want to come to the office.

Cisco has R & D expense of $8B in the income statement. Assuming 40k engineers world wide, the average CTS is $200k per engineer? Why Cisco needs to optimize this using layoffs?

I challenged KP, PJ and 4 of their lackeys to take GATE exam and score in top 10? What happened to the challenge?

So first draft submissions for the next LR have to be submitted in about 1 month, and leadership is hard looking at VTO. What I don't get is why. Excluding the obvious "lets fire whoever takes off the most time" what other reason would they want to... — read more 

Manger: I am concerned. Employee: about what? Manger (mysterious tone): you have kids, I cut your bonus. Employee: ok, I understand. Employee called zorro and moved on faster than you can say PolO. What a pice of cr-p of a company. Manger got... — read more 

https://www.reuters.com/world/us-has-reached-out-china-talk-tariffs-state-media-says-2025-05-01/ https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/may/01/us-has-approached-china-seeking-talks-on-trump-tariffs-says-state-social-media

Pre sales, post sales and network support and consulting roles, all soon reclassified as Solutions Engineer. Matrix organization, multiple heads to drive sales and CX, while layers of management made redundant. Good luck all.