Although I have not been posting Cisco resumes on BradReese.Com for a while now, I was quite surprised to view Cisco's partnertalentportal.com unique visitor website traffic statistics that were compiled by web analytics company Compete.com Why? Because it appears the new Cisco Partner Talent Portal will need our help in order to avoid failure.
Cisco Partner Talent Portal Website Traffic:
Trying to understand the Cisco Partner Talent Portal's difficulty, I asked a well-known CCIE for his perspective:
"With Cisco's focus on the VAR channel they have lost site of their true wealth, those individuals whom have achieved Cisco certifications. The contact and value reflect the lack of interest. I have never seen Cisco do anything for the CCIE resources that they have. When you consider what a CCIE knows and can do for Cisco or against Cisco I am very suprised that Cisco does not market directly to the CCIE channel to help with the deployment of new products. The new site just shows a lack of understanding of their support group of users.
"As a CCIE I wonder if Cisco understands what we need to do the job? I do know they never ask. My local dry cleaner is more interested in my business than Cisco, and I am a CCIE to boot. The issue is simple, Cisco has just thrown more on the Internet Wall. The problem is that Cisco does not know how to measure the effectiviness of the site.
"I still prefer working with SUN, HP, IBM, Apple and Microsoft over Cisco. Why, more and better support."
Celia Harper-Guerra - Senior Director of Cisco Worldwide Channels Partner Talent Acquisition, describes Cisco's Partner Talent Initiative in the following presentation.
Cisco Partner Talent Presentation:
How do you think we can help the Cisco Partner Talent Portal avoid failure?
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The answer lies in PowerPoint
More PowerPoint presentations. Look at the sample PP presentation you showed and the truth it tells.
48% found it difficult to hire technical talent. I wonder if Cisco checked to see if the people they outsourced/laid off/limited restructured have found jobs yet. Maybe that would be a good place to look.
The slide about talent investment is also interesting. The "driving loyalty" bullet is interesting. Cisco shows how much loyalty they show through outsourcing/layoffs/limited restructuring.
Talent is #1 Issue to Growth
What I found interesting was slide #4:
Talent is #1 Issue to Growth
If that's true, why is the count of unique visitors to the Cisco Partner Talent Portal becoming almost nonexistent?
Sincerely,
Brad Reese
BradReese.Com Cisco Refurbished
I'm a CCIE Brad. I've been
I'm a CCIE Brad. I've been shopping around for a new job for months, but its not easy here in SE Wisconsin. I don't believe Cisco is sincere about anything in these presentations. I think its a ploy to hire all of the jacked up CCIEs in third-world countries. Interesting coincidence these two things... Cisco complains about a shortage of talent for some time now, and there is an explosive boom of paper CCIEs in China and India happening all the while.
Guess Cisco plans on offshoring the hell out of their operations, or lobbying congress to altogether eliminate all restrictions around hiring H1Bs so they can import those people for cheap!
Really what Cisco is saying is... there is a shortage of wage-slave IT workers in the world. They need larger profits. Since they don't plan on paying these wage-slaves very much, it means that John is going to be making a pile of money!
Is the Cisco Partner Talent Portal useful?
Did you find the Cisco Partner Talent Portal useful?
How can Cisco make it better?
Sincerely,
Brad Reese
BradReese.Com Cisco Refurbished
Misleading
Does anyone know when the 2008 Partner Summit was? That's right April, 2008. More than a year ago. A lot has changed in the last 12 months. In March 2009 alone, unemployment in the US increased by more than 690,000. House foreclosures in the US are up 57% in last 12-months. Oil was over a $100 barrel in April 2008 and today it is roughly $46 a barrel. My point...why post a presentation that is well over a year old? What point does it prove? You have access to old data that is no longer relevant, which of course begs the question...how relevant is this blog?
So why the decline in unique visitors?
So why the decline in unique visitors?
You would think Cisco certified individuals would be "flocking" to the Cisco Partner Talent Portal.
Celia Harper-Guerra - Senior Director of Cisco Worldwide Channels Partner Talent Acquisition used the presentation in a Cisco blog as recently as November 17, 2008.
By the way, it's the only "presentation" that I'm aware that mentions the Cisco Partner Talent Portal, which appears to be dying!
Do you agree that it appears to by dying?
Obviously, Cisco has been aware of the difficult economic circumstances since how the appearance of "channel stuffing" was described back on May 8, 2008.
Sincerely,
Brad Reese
BradReese.Com Cisco Refurbished
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