Personally, I am 3+ years into coasting as Cisco. I work maybe 15 hour weeks prompting AI & making up nonsense to make myself look busy, and just abuse the sh-t out of the work from home policy or coffee badge into the office and sit around watching YouTube videos all day.
Best part, I've gotten 2 medium raises and a promotion. Never even remotely close to being put on a PIP. Life is great, really my ideal way out of here is winning the LR lottery.
Tell me your story about your finesse
@1ap Professional Engineer is a protected title - and rightly so. Nowhere is "principal" an interchangeable word.
Unbelievable.
"developer" is the new title.
It's an odd name for those who largely created then often failed to fix bugs.
Can't just call yourself an "engineer" without being P.Engs
I'm curious what country has this problem. I assume you are referring to Principal Engineers, which at Cisco in software couldn't do anything at any level of engineering at any other company. They largely plagiarized white papers that were self contradictory and entirely ignored. Cisco did have some world class talent on the hardware side though. The rare few excellent software Technical Leaders were overwhelmed with the damage caused by everyone around them and never had the effect they otherwise could and should have. I can't name another company that pulled Distinguished Engineers into bug fixing code they had no hand in creating.
I weep for the talent that died at Cisco but take some solace in that it never knew it was dying.
@117 "developer" is the new title. Can't just call yourself an "engineer" without being P.Engs (something protected-legal-yada-something or other)
I'm focusing my upskilling entirely on solving leetcode questions, system design and data structures and algorithms...
Learn to do something few Cisco software engineers ever did: how to remove an element of a data structure deterministically. Cisco's solution was always to move the element to a temporary list falsely hoping references to it would magically go away and then reuse it causing problems that could take a month or more to isolate.
@km I don't really care, your skills are quickly being replaced by AI anyways. I'm focusing my upskilling entirely on solving leetcode questions, system design and data structures and algorithms (none of which have anything to do with my job, but are for some reason the deciding factor in recruitment). Learn to play the game
OP was probably a DEI hire, so they don't expect much useful productivity anyway.
Somebody who has worked at Cisco for 15-20 years is considered unemployable, says Vinod Khosla
15-20 YEARS? I've seen Cisco's culture completely destroy a lot of great talent in 15-20 months. Projects overran by factors of dozens and management always fell back on the phrase "it was harder than anyone could have predicted and we persevered and pushed through!" so when you asked the people on those projects if they did a good job most would say yes when for most of those the opposite was true. Out of the hundreds I worked directly with on IOS, XE, XR and NX-OS PI and PD I'd happily consider hiring only about 5. That doesn't mean many of the others couldn't first rebuild somewhere else, but straight out of Cisco? No way.
Life is great, really my ideal way out of here is winning the LR lottery.
The LR will cover months of salary. Even in good times, which this is not, some ex-Cisco people never got back into a comparable role after being laid off. If you really are used to doing 15 hours a week by definition your skills are atrophying and you may find that next job much more difficult. Even if you don't want to leave soon you should be doing something to not only maintain but advance your skills even if it's on your own nickel and time.
@ga another brilliant employee here
@g5 lol, I coach little league baseball. I’m curious who is missing work for baseball. I don’t even know how that would be a thing. Adults typically play softball and little league is never during work hours. Maybe east coast little league would fall during work hours for west coast folks. Otherwise, I can’t think of why/how someone is missing work for baseball. Maybe they are attending a major league day game?
@g1 interesting though how many brag on here (and on many many other forums and social media sites) about their rampant time theft, coffee badging, playing games, shopping, away, at baseball and using mouse movers to appear as though they are "working". Or bragging about 2-3 hrs a week of work and the rest doing jack sh-t.
Odd. Isn't it?
Almost like revenue could be obtained by automation.
I’ve been in the workforce for a very long time and Cisco for several years. I passed the point of disappointment years ago and now I’m disgusted - and that is not hyperbole. The way people are treated, the self preservation to the point of being dishonest, truly a terrible situation. I’ll ride it out but I’ll never think much of this garbage company
@a3 Cisco pays $$$$ for 90,000 people to do absolutely nothing.....all fu--ing day. Loser company.
So, $63.3B in FY26 revenues is a result of 90K people doing absolutely nothing then?!?!?
@fq bullsh-t. Making way too much - for doing very little - in comparison to skilled jobs. Sending emails - oh no!
this place is such a he-l hole why on earth would any of you do anything but coast? this pile of sh-t board/ELT treats Cisco like a fu--ing toy, all you ICs included.
Hmmm. Well, AI means the company won't ask, “How do we make this person work 40 hours?” They'll ask, “Why does this job exist if it only contains 10 hours of useful work?”
If AI can automate most of those 10 hours and another employee can handle what's left, the company can maybe decide to pay the person hourly OR (more likely) notice they don't need the position at all.
Real risk for the many people like this bragging that they've done almost nothing for years.
@ew nobody except 4th tier tech companies hire former cisco . Thought this was common knowledge?
That is the thing. Both are right. People at Cisco for 15+ years are definitely unemployable outside of HPE/Juniper. There is no spark left. They are just bureaucratic dolls.
However, they have also made sh-t ton of money enough for a comfortable retirement. So they are not really looking to be employed again. Some are waiting for the LR package while others have risen enough to pull a couple of million a year for no work
Vinod Khosla can go eff his self. The rest that agree are being laughed at by those long term erm employees. We may not have a Vinod Khosla balance sheet but I bet ours is larger than 99% of you keyboard bad as--s. Get back to being over rated dregs and plan on working until you’re 75 while we sit back in a comfortable retirement.
Jealous again? Because your family hasn't been proud of you for decades.
Will AI be able to tell that you are a bootlicking simpleton?
I read the day long posts around here coming from bootlickers like you. I guess we are even, for now at least.
Jealous, bootlicker? 🤣🤣🤣🤣
Loser
Yea I cant do that. They actually track what I do and it has to meet a minimum every month or else. Im happy for you though.
recruiters don't like to see it on resumes. Never knew why
Somebody who has worked at Cisco for 15-20 years is considered unemployable, says Vinod Khosla
Well sorry to rain on your party but that is an id--tic conclusion
I did not know anything about this guy before you posted
Yes he has authority but is is over extending it by saying that and he is wrong
I don't have the freaking time to learn what is coming to me and this rich dude is calling me ossified ? Fu-k off !
Somebody who has worked at Cisco for 15-20 years is considered unemployable, says Vinod Khosla
( I have direct experience with cisco id--ts )..VK is 100% spot on.
Agree. What losers you all are.
Guess what? AI will be able to tell you don't work and that you make up bullsh-t !
Cisco stop paying people to not work
@a2 OP here. If you have already established yourself as dependent, hardworking & reliable, you are sc--wed from the start. Your best bet is to get moved to a different manager before you start. @a5 explained it pretty well, see how much you can get away with it and stretch that line slowly over time.
This is the way! No need to do any real work, just show you are doing something (with AI to help with the bullshiiting) and you will be the best employee!
@a2 hunger games.. this is a business world, not your personal life. "feelings" don't belong in the business world. every man, woman, child for themselves!
Tell me your story about your finesse
I read all the day long posts around here coming from id--ts like you
Cisco pays $$$$ for 90,000 people to do absolutely nothing.....all fu--ing day.
Loser company
How do i do this and not feel bad for my co-workers - teach me your ways.
Rock on!