Cisco

Cisco was great because I joined a team that was highly motivated and out to build something new. I worked out of the Meraki office and really liked all of my co-workers in the building and the culture that was built there. We initially had a really good dynamic, and for a period of time I really enjoyed my day-to-day. Over time, we had a series of leadership changes, acquisitions, and after nearly a dozen manager changes in a few short years and an exodus of talent, my team became a shell of what it formerly was. I had great experiences finding other ways to involve myself in the Cisco community that led to a lot of amazing new connections and opportunities that I will forever be grateful for. Cisco has abundant opportunities outside of your immediate org if you are motivated and ask to be involved. There were a lot of amazing upsides to Cisco, but my immediate BU was horribly mismanaged.

Unreasonable amounts of pager duty (I was a SWE and on PD 12 hours a day for over 100 days of the year).

Poor upper-level management of the BU caused an exodus of talent.

Too many manager changes in too short a time.

Communicate more with your team about what is actually happening before things get really bad.