How to Stand Out for All the Right Reasons

Cisco is definitely a destination to exercise your best work habits and sharpest skills. It's a company that is competitive to Get Into and by all accounts is absolutely worth it to your career to make that happen.

Here are a few thoughts and pieces of advise about how to help you stand out:

1) Understand and Articulate Your Strengths, Passions and Career Trajectory before you explore.

-Do a deep dive and assess your qualifications to bring not just your best forward, but begin to answer the question "Why am I right for Cisco?" By understanding your own make up, you'll be able to communicate how that applies to Cisco, and why it is valuable.

- Don't fear what you're not best at, if you hide it, it will be a negative, but if you recognize it, you can now demonstrate a commitment to improvement and offer a window into how to be managed successfully. While sometimes painful, at Cisco the Managers are here to Build You Up, not tear you down. Carefully recognize and begin to address your shortcomings ahead of exploring. Your preparation demonstrates your professionalism.

2) Have Clear Objectives. 

-The roles you apply to should make sense to a recruiter and also show consistency. Applying to too many roles in differing categories is confusing to those involved in the selection process (i.e. recruiters). Recruiters need to know with confidence what you are best at and deliver that judgement with confidence to the hiring managers. Your specificity and clarity of objective helps assure that we are all on the same page.

-If you apply to everything off the wall, we now have a question about you, not an answer.

3) Network and Connect.

-I am a proponent of not only making connections on Linkedin, but of leveraging those contacts to maximize their value. I recommend doing the same.  If you want to connect and network with someone about a possible job, but don't know who to connect with, Ask... There is no harm in inquiring about who your network would recommend you connect with to get one step closer. For recruiters: Be specific, Keep it as transactional- nothing time absorbing- and make a quick and compelling pitch about yourself. 

Eventually, your hard work in connecting and networking will absolutely pay off.

4) Don't give up on your recruiter- Once is not enough.

    - Achieving your goals for a better career is not as easy as saying 'hello' or asking for answers from the recruiter. It takes a lot of hard work, persistence and determination to make a long term impact and build meaning within these types of recruiting relationships.  Your recruiter may not be able to assist at the volume, frequency or speed that you would most desire, but don't mistake this as a 'no'... It's simply an expression of work load and conflicting priorities. Be Persistent in your communications but also Be Right. Every email is an opportunity to build your personal brand.  Trust me, If you are the best person for the job, we definitely want you to wave your arms and get our attention.

   -By recognizing your value and providing an insistence in the quality and impact of your competencies, you're communicating the necessary confidence for success. This will eventually reward you with next steps.

5) Network Valuable Career Opportunities.

- I'm consistently surprised at how little sharing of opportunities exists across industries. It's a rare person who shares job announcements across their network and yet it's something that is almost universally desired by all of us: Advancement or Improvement in our Career.

-If you know someone who would like the idea of a raise, working for a top rated company that treats their employees with the highest respect and rewards them for their initiative, drive and performance, it makes sense to let them know about the opportunity... The worst case scenario is that they say Thank You for thinking of me.

For me, I guess that people fear that they are intruding where they are not welcome. It could be that they don't know how to share opportunities without announcing they have a relationship with a recruiter. Really, it's OK to talk to recruiters and no-one in your network will disparage your pursuit of valuable contacts or for developing your career. If they were to tell you otherwise, why are they in your network to begin with? If you're interested in Career Opportunities, you want allies, not hall monitors in your network.


Ultimately if you'd like to receive leads about great opportunities from Your network, share first and watch what happens for you later. And just to let you know- 84% of all working Americans are looking for a new role in 2011... 84%... probably 84% of your network too.

Build upon your relationships to gain champions, Cisco included. The recruiter as well as any person you help connect with a career in Cisco will personally value your efforts and never forget the great lead. 

Integrate some of these concepts in your networking and recruiter communications, you'll become more of a stand out for all the right reasons.

Cheers to The Future and Thanks for tolerating the ramble to the end.

Cisco- After the Honeymoon

In 1995 after graduate school, my now wife and I moved to Raleigh, NC to enter the workforce and begin our careers and start raising our family. Sometime in early 1996 I learned about this cool company called Cisco for the first time. A friend of mine who was a technical writer at Cisco told me to get on board, and explained that they made routers, switches and ATM’s (I thought she meant money-machines). It wasn't just the technology, but it was the passion she spoke about the company that was so intriguing. When she explained that Cisco was the backbone of the internet, I realized just how important this company was going to be, for a very, very long time to come (even if I barely understood that the internet was bigger than AOL!). 

Cisco instantly became my choice as The Destination for my career.   

In the 1990’s Cisco, was the smartest business I had ever heard of; the internet was exploding as we all remember and it was so fundamentally and almost instantly changing the way the world connected. When I realized that the internet was probably never going to go away (good guess), I recognized that Cisco was the one company that was also never going to go away.  Cisco was brilliantly positioned, exceptionally run and jam packed full of literally the best and brightest minds in the talent market.

When I started my career as a recruiter a couple years later all those years ago, Cisco was already a tech giant and becoming a Powerhouse. I couldn’t pry people away from ‘anything Cisco.’

Here are a few of the Cisco lines I heard in my early days as an agency recruiter:

…“I’m interviewing with Cisco, I’ll call you if I don’t get the job.”

…“I have an offer on the table from Cisco for $120k with stock options - can you beat that?”

… and, “Dude, I work for Cisco… why would I want to leave?”

Cisco was hiring the smartest and most bright-eyed people in the market and absolutely owned the talent market. It was an amazing event to watch if you were paying attention.

If you know someone that worked for Cisco in the last 15 years, the chances are they fit this profile:

--Successful, Happy and Proud of their Cisco experience.

Cisco has made a lot of great careers for people over the years and has also helped a lot of people retire younger over the years too.

For as long as I’ve watched the company, Cisco has been led by John Chambers. He struck me as a leader that people could relate to and someone that cared as much about doing business the right way as he did about making a profit. The company was the best stock to own in the 1990’s. The Decade.

Today? $40b+ in the bank. Not bad at all.

I was thrilled 8 months ago when I was invited to join Cisco. I knew the company was evolving and I was really interested to see if the culture of success still permeated the organization.

What I see today- now from inside the walls of Cisco- are the same bright, brilliant minded professionals that eagerly take on the challenge and responsibility of leading, innovating and engineering solutions that are going to shape the internet for the next 15 years. It’s a company jam-packed full of professional optimism, a disciplined work ethic, and a passion for success… led by the same John Chambers.

Recruiting here, I can offer that I’ve been challenged and rewarded unlike any job I’ve ever had before. There are high expectations for success here, and flaws are exposed quickly.  What’s interesting about weaknesses being exposed here however is that there is such a calm, professional management approach that I feel supported and encouraged rather than exposed and at risk because of a mistake. It’s counter intuitive and refreshing to think that a place that is so performance driven can also be so tolerant and encouraging of your growth and development.

I’m not only a fan of Cisco, but I’m also a critic. I hold this organization to very high standards and my expectation is that anyone that comes to work for Cisco will do the same. They ask for feedback all the time, and it feels great to confidently offer it, knowing that it is being used to better an already impressive organization. It’s heard, measured and most importantly, Valued.

The honeymoon is over, and I’m pleased to tell you that Cisco remains a great place to do the best work of your life.

For those that are down on Cisco because of the stock price, I want to point out that IBM’s stock is at $160/share, they have record profits but their employees live with a constant state of sick worry about the motivations of the company and the safety of their livelihoods. 

Recruiting for Cisco is a Great Experience.

Not only do I get to share my 15 year journey to Cisco with my candidates, but I get to share it with my colleagues too.

The hardest role in the marketplace is that of leader, and Cisco personifies leadership at every turn.  Working here, you quickly recognize that your team, your managers, directors, executives and even your support staff are all in line, tuned into the mission at hand: Find your best, bring it every day and keep growing… it’s a very strong organization dedicated to crafting success for itself as well as its employees and community. (Cisco, I have learned firsthand is Incredibly Generous and Charitable)

For some, it’s easy to be down on Cisco because their relationship with the company is as a competitor or as a shareholder… John Chambers and the Executives successfully manage the business as well as any company on earth, to the point that they precisely delivery on expectations and have a very accurate track record of predicting market conditions, challenges and opportunities for growth. This is a company to invest your career in, not just your 401k.

I’m thrilled to be here and highly encourage anyone who is looking for an opportunity to grow and be challenged professionally to test your own capabilities with a company that has the resources, structure and vision to empower you to achieve new heights in Your Career.

Cheers to The Future.