Hopeless Crowd

Cisco hosted Gulf Partner Summit 2006 in Jumeirah Beach Hotel last week. I went there most probably because of the free buffet lunch and dinner, but there was one thing that really caught my attention during the opening speech.

Samer Alkharrat, General Manager for Gulf and Pakistan mentioned: “Yes, Middle East is one of the Emerging Market with 60% business growth. And for sure Cisco Systems Middle East is expanding. We need to hire more than 30 people in the next several months. But let me makes it clear: We will not touch you all from our partners. We will not hire anyone who works in our partners”

The mood of some people inside the room changed dramatically.
I was one of those hopeless crowds. One of the bunches of people who used to think that if we serve Cisco well, than one day we will get our rewards and be able to work for Cisco directly.

So Cisco Middle East is hiring 30 guys within several months, and all of those cannot be from the partners? Yeah, right. Then from where will Cisco get them?

Sam then continued: “but you have to take care of your employees. It really hurts us every time we see the best people from our partners move to our competitors like Huawei or Juniper”

That’s exactly my point.
Unless Cisco wants to see Double CCIE or even Triple CCIE to join its competitor, they should not have this kind of policy at all!
What will be the future for all Cisco engineers who work in partners like me then?
I may not like to go to the competitor, but where should I go?

So it looks like I’m stuck with my 3-options. Or am I?
What if I try to get more options? It may not solve my problems but at least it will make me happier, perhaps.

Starting from last night, I put back my CV in monster.
I used to have my CV available there until I removed it last year because I was so busy with my CCIE security preparation. I didn't have time for searching a job.

Now it is time to announce my existence to the world.
Let’s wait and see.