Fifteen Years and Counting: How Cisco Became More Than a Career

I didn’t plan to remain fifteen years. In actual fact, I joined Cisco pondering it might be a stepping stone — just a few years to develop, study, and transfer on. However someplace between the initiatives that stretched me, the individuals who believed in me, and the aim that grounded me, it turned a lot greater than a job. It turned residence.

Opening New Doorways

Once I walked via Cisco’s doorways fifteen years in the past, on the RTP Campus Cisco Constructing 11, I carried each ambition and hope. My very first function was a dream come true — I might hardly imagine it occurred. As a survivor of the genocide in opposition to the Tutsi in Rwanda at simply 13 years outdated, who had misplaced my dad and mom and two siblings, and raised my three youthful siblings, constructing a life from scratch and securing a place at a world tech chief like Cisco felt like an inconceivable feat. I hadn’t are available in via a community or a suggestion, simply my very own utility and benefit. And one way or the other, that door opened.

I got here in hungry to show myself and desirous to study from one of the best. Through the years, I’ve had the privilege of serving throughout each Buyer Expertise (post-sales) and Gross sales — first rising via networking consulting engineering and buyer success roles in CX, the place I targeted on resolution supply, optimization, and long-term buyer success. I later transitioned into the pre-sales facet as a technical options architect and options engineer, the place I mix technical depth with enterprise technique, shaping outcomes earlier than they’re constructed. Every transfer jogged my memory that Cisco doesn’t simply supply jobs — it affords room to develop and discover new alternatives with out ever having to go away.

Every step stretched me, sharpened me, and expanded my influence.

Some roles I pursued didn’t work out. However even these “noes” turned bridges. Leaders who as soon as turned me down for a task turned mentors, sponsors, and advocates — supporting me, cheering me on, and opening doorways I hadn’t even identified existed.

By means of all of it, I met prospects who impressed me with their imaginative and prescient, companions who jogged my memory that innovation solely thrives when belief and collaboration paved the way, and colleagues who are actually lifelong buddies.

The place Goal Took Flight

Cisco is greater than a office, it’s my residence away from residence, the place I discovered my voice, my confidence, and my goal. It didn’t simply form my profession — it helped me rise above the storms of my previous.

Early in my Cisco journey, impressed by our giving again tradition, I based Rising Above the Storms (RAS), a nonprofit that helps susceptible youth in Rwanda via training and mentorship. What started as a private mission — to honor my household’s legacy and provides different orphans an opportunity at life — quickly discovered its wings via Cisco’s immersive tradition of giving again, and over time, helped it develop.

Success, Redefined

Cisco didn’t simply make room for my dream — it stood behind it with a energy I by no means might have imagined. My very first Board of Administrators was made up solely of Cisco staff who believed in Rising Above the Storms from the very starting. And 12 months after 12 months, our most devoted volunteers have continued to return from Cisco, exhibiting up with their time, experience, and hearts.

By means of worker giving, matched donations, and volunteer hours (we obtain 80 hours of paid day without work annually for it), Cisco has contributed practically 40% of our annual nonprofit funds, empowering us to coach, mentor, and look after tons of of susceptible college students in Rwanda. It’s one factor to work alongside gifted colleagues. It’s one other to see those self same folks pour their time and hearts into one thing that issues far past our day-to-day roles.

From the Bridge to Attainable Award (2018) and the Group Hero Award, Cisco didn’t merely acknowledge my mission — it amplified it. When Cisco’s manufacturing workforce flew to Rwanda to movie my story, capturing how expertise and compassion can remodel lives, it validated not simply me, however the mission itself. That video turned a turning level for RAS — the second our basis, repute, and credibility took root.

Cisco didn’t simply help a nonprofit. It helped ignite a motion of hope.

Given the Present of Progress

Cisco has given me greater than a profession — it has given me the power to rebuild lives, beginning with my very own. It enabled me to financially help and open doorways not only for my youthful siblings, whom I raised after we misplaced our dad and mom, however now for a lot of extra kids who remind me of the place I as soon as stood.

I’ve constructed a profession that’s taken me throughout CX and Gross sales, supported unimaginable prospects and companions, and brought me to all 50 U.S. states and over 30 nations. Alongside the best way, I’ve been lifted by a neighborhood that believes in folks earlier than titles, and in Goal earlier than revenue.

Fifteen years later, I’ve discovered probably the most significant progress doesn’t at all times occur from the roles you maintain, however from the folks and experiences that form you alongside the best way. It occurs within the moments when folks see your potential and select to put money into it.

I got here to Cisco for a job — however I obtained a lot greater than something I might have imagined on that first day. I discovered belonging. I discovered goal. I discovered a spot that believed within the energy of 1 story — when shared and supported — can ripple outward and alter lives

Cisco isn’t simply the place I’ve spent fifteen years. It’s the place the work, the folks, and the Goal aligned in a means that continues to matter.

And it’s why I’m nonetheless right here.

Prepared for a task the place your profession and goal align? Discover your home at Cisco.

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