Thread regarding Cisco Systems Inc. layoffs

survival at Cisco isnt about performance , many do nothing but are seen as leaders, its all about managing your manager or perceptions not actually doing anything. Several sales champions from CX are just good at BS, we laugh at how leaders believe they are useful or effective, but they keep swallowing their lies and deception. Just keep head down, the more noise you make , the chance you get the hammer, dont have a opinion, agree to everything and keep quiet, then you have 15 years down before you know it, and do not sell your RSUs if you get any , only id--ts do that and are poor and stressed when they are finally hit, and yes it will happen to you ,just latter if you follow this advice.

Cisco does have a reputation for being a great place to work with the one caveat that they do annual layoffs. These are in the first fiscal quarter in the July to November time frame. At the end of the fiscal year, Cisco moves money between business units and when a business uni5 loses money it causes a layoff.

So if you joined right at Q1, you should expect to see about 3 layoffs in 2 years. That is normal for Cisco. There was an extra layoff in February 2024 so everyone in this time frame saw four layoffs.

Fellow husband and father here. I was impacted by one of those LRs you mentioned. Some people will tell you to work hard and you’ll be safe, but I can promise you that’s not the case. You can be a top performer and get cut while others who don’t even show up for mandatory team meeting keep on flying below the radar. But try explaining to an interviewer that you laid off because of secretive (probably randomized) process that even your direct manager had no involvement in. My advice is that you should always be networking. I still haven’t been able to land a job post-LR and many people from unit are also in the same boat. If you think having Cisco on your resume gives you some kind of career armor, you’re wrong. The sentiment around the tech space is that Cisco gives everyone a blueprint to do their jobs, so we’re are all just lazy and braindead by the time we get laid off. I have had hiring managers reject me explicitly because Cisco is on my resume. Not trying to scare you or give you some kind of s-b story, just telling you the reality that many of us who have been cut are experiencing. Life at Cisco is great until you get “impacted”.

Run like the wind! I left a year ago - only a few years out of college as well and was the best thing I ever did! Cisco is so old school and honestly is not well respected in the industry…

can't speak for other parts of the company, but around where I am, it is effectively impossible to transition into a pure tech role; Cisco prefers to hire folks directly into these positions

The market is brutal right now for tech. Early in career are hard to find. Just look at job reqs at Cisco and other places. Most of the reqs belong to senior devs. However, you've mentioned that you're in sales so was wondering why not be a cloud architect similar to sales where you talk to clients. Look at AI at places like Microsoft, Google, and Amazon. Your sales role is not safe either as they are turning into AI agents.

I'm still early in my career with a sales background, and chasing CCNA and other certifications to be able to pivot to a more technical role

can't speak for other parts of the company, but around where I am, it is effectively impossible to transition into a pure tech role; Cisco prefers to hire folks directly into these positions

for example, I have seen a lot of people with CS degrees etc take a software QA role in the hopes that it will result in a transition to software dev...but I have never seen the transition actually happen, they just stay in QA forever

when Cisco rolls out a motto with phrases like "many careers"...it really means they will use you as a trade-able asset to be moved laterally into any org that needs temp help; you are effectively a thing to be traded and used as temp help

as to advice - put a limit on your time at Cisco or your resume will start to smell

if you are at Cisco for 10+ years you are probably dead to a hiring manager anywhere else

Cisco was my first job after college and was there for 2 years. I have seen both sides of the coin here. One is in my case where during those 2 years I had 3 managers and couldn't able to get stable leadership. Additionally, my team was young so getting promoted was hard. I had good reviews, but no pay raises and small bonuses since manager was trying to give ratings based on budget. The next point will hit the second scenario.

My manager hired me out of college and I knew him before since he made some campus visits to recruit new grads. However, during my time at Cisco he helped me get training, let me do CCNA training, lab equipment setup, allowed me to join E-O during work hours, but that all change with reorg due to layoffs. Therefore, new manager and things went south. I had to explain to my next 2 managers why this "thing" is this necessary and couldn't take it anymore since I wasn't welcome.

The moral of the 1st point is pay and back luck since team was young. After leaving I manage to get a 45k pay raise since Cisco does pay below market. The second point is synergy with manager. I know people who graduated from the same college as me and still works there after 8 years, why because of the manager. You can mitigate point 1 with performance, but point 2 is hard. I got hired an my new job great synergy with manager and his manager, but layoffs occured and leadership change and went south to the point I started talking back to him. I was laid off from the job. At this point I just chase higher pay since layoffs are happening and this AI thing.

Man up, dude. 2 years and you're chasing CCNA? It's the easiest cert to get; if you really wanted it, you'd have it by now.

You're not married to Cisco - look for another job if you want.

How is this difficult? I'm guessing you're full of weak excuses. Go read some David Goggins.

That said, yes, you can move around plenty at Cisco if you are talented. The only 'culture' you're exposed to is whoever you are working with. Outside of that relatively small group of people, company culture is a myth.

For a young guy like you networking is not the place to be. It’s in a race to the bottom. At the end of the day a switch is a switch despite how much “innovation” Cisco claims. There are more rewarding careers. I’d retrain if I were you and get into construction, civil or aeronautical engineering and leave IT behind.

There are no guarantees in life and certainly not at Cisco.

Always have a "plan B" at Cisco. Never think you won't be LR'd. Most will be. I was there for quite some time. I received a signed book with John Chamber's signature at the end of a good quarter. Was promoted and recieved a healthy amount of stock options. Six months later, I was moved to a new management chain, as my old manager (who promoted me), moved on to another role. My new management chain proceeded to LR several of us on the team, one per quarter, and usually the older (sad to say) male employees, different from the ethnicity of the new management chain. Sorry, that is just the reality of it. No matter how good you feel at your current job, things can change on a dime, and you can find yourself the next to go.

I’ve been here a few years and most of the “culture” at the corporate-level is completely fake. LRs are pretty regular too. Cisco is just a company that eats up smaller companies and ki-ls their products.