Women in Tech

Twenty years ago, I was an underdog professional. A 30-something-year-old Latina woman (one of the few female electronic technicians at the time) who hadn’t graduated from an Ivy League university and had failed her first certification exams. But I didn’t let my ‘not-so-stellar’ background prevent m…

Upon hearing the words ‘Corporate America’ – your thoughts are probably filled with suits, ties, and briefcases. Which isn’t necessarily the case today, and especially not at Cisco. Upon hearing words like ‘volunteer’, ‘give back’, and ‘Corporate Social Responsibility’ – Corporate America might be…

Do you make your bed in the morning? You may want to start! In a 2014 commencement speech at University of Texas at Austin, Naval Admiral William McRaven, a commander of U.S. Special Operations gave one of the most profound and motivational speeches. Just about all of us have heard some form of Admi…

Filling an open role can be tough, and as a Senior Director in HR, there are many things I look for and consider in a candidate. Will the candidate influence others? Will they pursue learning opportunities to grow within Cisco? Are they able to work independently? And, of course, are they a cultural…

Sometimes, things just don’t happen as planned. On the night before I was due to fly to the United States for my favorite event of the year, Cisco IMPACT (our annual Sales kick off), I dropped my laptop on my foot. It hurt – A LOT.  But overcome with excitement, and assuming it was just bruised, I l…

When I arrived at the Cisco campus in Raleigh, North Carolina I was, like most new-hires, overwhelmed with optimism and a sea of opportunity. I was also nervous about the financial risk I took on as a contracted employee and a single mother of twins.   Those nerves, however, decreased rapi…

Among the most recent additions to our global network of innovation centres, is a new, state-of-the-art facility in Dubai. The centre itself is as eye-catching as our other facilities around the world, both inside and out, and offers an incubation space to a number of exciting emerging technologies.…

Everyone looks for a place where they feel they belong – it’s basic, it’s necessary. But the path to finding this place is not always obvious. Sometimes it takes a dedicated plan, while other times a bit of fate will step in and make sure you’re in the right place at the right time. I ha…

I began my Cisco journey as a contract employee, working as a Global Field Escalation Specialist.  In just 9 months, however, I was able to use Cisco’s incredible resources to catapult my career and land a full-time role in Data Analytics. How did I “level up”?  These three resources put me on the…