Cisco Layoffs 2024 – Resources and Recommendations

Jason Paul

Introduction

If you’re reading this article, you’ve probably been impacted by a round of LR (Limited Restructuring) – aka Layoffs at Cisco. This article has resources to help get you through this, either by finding another role internally at Cisco, or preparing to leave Cisco to find a job elsewhere.

Note: If any of the resources like the WebEx groups are out of date, please comment on this article with updated links and I can adjust them.
Special thanks to members of the Cisco Systems Alumni group on Facebook who provided additional recommendations.

Background

I joined Cisco in August 2022, and was part of a great team under Cloud Infrastructure Engineering that managed the platforms for containerized workloads. I was constantly learning and challenged, participated in social events through the Inclusive Communities, helped with company events like Hackathons, and volunteered through Time2Give. I really enjoyed the being part of the team I was on, and it was a very positive experience. We were in the process of migrating internal applications to a new Kubernetes platform we were building, I was excited to be part of the group that would be supporting the application developers onboard.

Unfortunately for me, this came to an abrupt end in February 2024 when I was impacted as part of a restructuring. I was notified the day after the quarterly earnings call that my position had been eliminated. My team was moved from Security to under Collaboration (WebEx). As part of this, the roles of the majority of the team members in North America were impacted. Some managed to find new roles within Cisco, but most open roles in my line of work required US citizenship and working on US soil, as they were mainly being used for FedRAMP certifications.

I was unfortunately not able to find an internal role in Canada, and my time with Cisco ended in March 2024.

What to do first?

Make a plan, get organized. I recommend creating a Google Drive space, putting together a checklist, and start prioritizing what needs to be done.

Gather Your Contacts

Your contacts at Cisco are probably one of the most valuable things you can take with you. If you were at Cisco for a while, you probably made a lot of valuable connections, and it’s critical to have the means to stay in touch after you leave the company.

  1. First of all, export your contacts from Outlook to a CSV file that you can download. The option to do this is built right into Outlook – here are steps.
  2. Secondly, go through your chats and emails, and make sure you have names and contact information for all of your important connections. You may even want to go through the company directory and org tree and gather names and contact information.
  3. Reach out to your teammates and other close connections, and ensure you have non-work related contact information to stay in touch. This could be ensuring you are connected on LinkedIn, or ask for personal email addresses and phone numbers. Make sure to provide your contact information as well.

Back up your data

In most cases, once you’re notified your role is impacted, depending on your country, you may be provided a notice or transition period, where you are still employed, but perform no official duties. This gives you the opportunity to apply for other positions inside Cisco. Once you are notified, most of your access to internal systems is quickly removed.

I would recommend gathering up as much data as possible that you are allowed to take. Obviously, don’t try to exfiltrate anything sensitive like company data or work product; but your own personal data will be harder to get once your access is removed.

For example:

  • Download copies of your original offer letter, any promotion letters, and any documentation surrounding your ending of employment at Cisco.
  • I would also recommend saving local PDF copies of any documents provided around the separation from Cisco for quick reference.
  • Screenshot or export your RSU and ESPP history. You may need this for tax purposes later on.
  • Save copies of your pay stubs and tax documents for the last few years. You may need this for tax time, although you should retain access to Workday/ADP for a while externally.
  • Test external access to ADP/Payroll via this link. To log in, you enter your Cisco email ID without the “@cisco.com” but replace it with @ciscoinc (no “.com” at the end of the ID). Then select “Forgot your password?” This is when you would receive a SMS text message code to start the process to register for the external portal, or you can validate with your cisco.com email address while you have access. Make sure to update all your contact information so you can manage it without Cisco resources.
  • You can actually download a full PDF of each of your Connected Recognition Rewards, if you want to keep them for your personal portfolio. There is an info button for details where it will generate the PDF for you to download.
  • Download and save copies of any performance reviews (Talent Assessments), letters of recommendation, letters of employment verification, or other official documents from Workday. If you need to print a letter of employment verification, I believe you can go to this site to do so.
  • Download (Print to PDF) any important emails, such as letters of recommendation or reference from your leadership.
  • Submit any outstanding expenses in Concur, to ensure you can be reimbursed in time. Save copies of all of your submitted expenses and receipts in case you need them later on.

Start a graceful exit

I found that once you were impacted, you are quickly removed from a lot of internal communication; and because you’re not present in team meetings, you won’t be as visible, so less people will reach out to you. You’ll need to put in a lot of effort on the communication front.

I would recommend being proactive and notifying your team that you were impacted by the restructuring. You can send an email to yourself and BCC everyone you want to reach. Let them know you appreciated working with them, and you want to stay in touch. Provide all of your personal contact information, and ask them to reply and provide theirs. You will probably need to follow up via WebEx directly with some people.

Ask for LinkedIn recommendations from anyone you worked with closely, and offer to do one for them as well. I think it’s important to ask and offer, and do them while everything is fresh in your mind. Admittedly, I still have a lot of these to do, but I haven’t forgotten!

Now this is obviously not required, but if you have the mental capacity to do it, I think it’s the classy thing to do. It’ll help your teammates who are absorbing the work, who are probably just as shaken as you. If you can, go through your open tasks and add some context so whoever picks it up from you has an easier time.

What to do next?

Depending on your notice period, you may be instructed not to sign any termination agreement right away. You will need to do this after your notice period and employment with Cisco ends. DO NOT sign it early, as it may result in you forfeiting any severance payment. Make sure to read all of the legal documents carefully before doing anything.

I would recommend adding calendar reminders to your personal calendar for when to sign the documents, and when to sign up for unemployment benefits.

Sign up for the offered resources

Cisco will provide a lot of different resources once you are impacted, and I would recommend taking advantage of as many as you can.

They will provide a few months of support through Risemart Randstad, which includes resume review, career coaching, advising, and job searching. I recommend signing up and booking time with the coach, who can support you and check in with you regularly. In addition, this service also provides access to Udemy Business, so you can take some courses to help with certifications or retraining – I highly recommend this.

Some other internal resources – mainly through WebEx Eurl links or on the internal Sharepoint:

Look at internal job opportunities

You may be able to find another role within Cisco. First, reach out to any of your internal connections to see if they are aware of any open roles that might work, or could be moved to your location.

Check the individual company career pages, as well as the internal job portal, and partner sites:

If you find a potential role, I would recommend reaching out to the recruiter or hiring manager over WebEx if possible. Some roles may be able to be moved from one location to another. Internal applicants are supposed to get priority, but I expect you may have to do some prodding if to see if this could work.

Use up your benefits

Once you know when your benefits will run out, make sure to take full advantage of anything you can still use. Get those new glasses or other medical equipment. Make sure you use your fitness reimbursement. Cash out any Connected Recognition Rewards balance you may have left (easiest to convert into gift cards). If making you’re making charitable donations, do it now and request the Cisco match.

In the USA: If you qualify sign up for Retired Medical package (RMAP) before your COBRA runs out, keep at least the vision and/or dental so if you need this kind of coverage later, you have access to it. If you’re Medicare/Social Security age, be sure you get a credible coverage statement from HR. They should provide that automatically, but if you don’t get it, ask.

Disconnect and Transition

If you’ve been at Cisco a long time, you may have some personal accounts tied to your email address. Make sure you change everything to use a non-Cisco email address. If you’ve signed up for any external websites that could be handy using your Cisco email address, login and change them to your personal address while you still have access to click the change verification links sent to the Cisco address.

If you have a Cisco-paid mobile phone or plan, get it transferred to a personal account quickly. If you wait for it to be deactivated, you will likely lose your number and won’t be able to transfer it.

Make sure your Credly account info is switched over from your Cisco email address to your personal email address, otherwise you lose all your badges.

Make sure that all of your saved contacts are associated with your personal email address and not your Cisco email address. Having an offline copy of everything is the best option to be safe.

Network and join external support groups

As stated earlier, make sure to reach out to anyone you want to stay connected with from Cisco and ensure you have contact information and are connected on LinkedIn.

Leverage your network! Put up a post on LinkedIn that you were impacted by restructuring and are Open To Work. Be specific on what kind of roles you’re looking for, what you’re interested in working on, and what you’re proud of. For an example, this was my post a few months ago:

If you have a portfolio page, online resume, or personal website – definitely link to it. If you know others in the industry at companies you’re interested in working for, reach out to them and start a conversation. Maybe it’ll give you more information or insight on the company, or eventually you could ask for a referral, or ask them to connect you with someone who is hiring. Your network is an amazing asset – don’t neglect it!

There are a ton of online communities from Cisco Alumni that can have gone through this before and can support you. Make sure to check for additional files and resources in these groups:

Conclusion – Personal Note

Getting laid off can be traumatic. The first time I was laid off was in 2013 from BlackBerry, and I didn’t take it well. It was my first big job after school, and I had been there for almost 10 years, and it was all I knew. I had focused on becoming skilled on their proprietary technology, and hadn’t put a lot of time into networking. I don’t even think I had a LinkedIn profile back then.

I learned a lot of lessons from that layoff, and I’ve put a lot of the resources and advice in this article, so you don’t have to make the same mistakes I did. Make sure to always keep your skills up to date, and focus on skills that are transferable. Build your brand – have a portfolio page or personal website, so you can showcase more than will fit on a 2 page resume. Always be networking and meeting new people. Attend conferences, meetups, and other social events, and get to know people in your field of interest.

There are a ton of resources and support out there, and I believe people WANT to help you! Don’t be afraid to ask for help. I’m so fortunate that I have a lovely wife who supported me through my Cisco layoff, and a ton of friends and family that encouraged me. I’m also incredibly grateful to all the friends and connections that reached out and offered to help connect me with hiring managers, or do a referral for me. Honestly, most of the interviews I got in the few last months were due to you all, and I can’t thank you enough.

I wish you all the best in your job search and hope you find something that will propel your career forward and make you happy. Feel free to reach out to me directly if I can help in any way.

Other Resources

  • External ADP Access – To log in, you enter your Cisco email ID without the “@cisco.com” but replace it with @ciscoinc (no “.com” at the end of the ID). Then select “Forgot your password?” This is when you would receive a SMS text message code to start the process to register for the external portal, or you can validate with your cisco.com email address while you have access. Make sure to update all your contact information so you can manage it without Cisco resources.
  • Mustafa Hepekiz created WhoIsHiringInTech so you can easily search through for jobs in your area. There is even a Chrome Extension available called JobGuardian.
  • YouTube – A Life After Layoff – I found this to be a great resource with insights on how to build yourself up to get that next job, and be the “CEO of your own career”.
  • Reddit – /r/jobbit – Technical Job Board
  • TealAI – AI Resume Creator – I’ve heard some good things about the feedback on creating resumes with this, although you can get personalized resume reviews through Randstadt.

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