After Cisco
- 3%Founded something25
- 17%Joined a startup140
- 35%Joined a big company291
- 45%Elsewhere
Shares of those who moved on, by their next stop.
People who leave Cisco most often go to Google, Amazon and Meta. Of them, 17% go somewhere small. The median tenure is 2y 3m
Not Cisco's headcount: these are the engineers in the Zelcast network and the profiles run through the Eng Scorer. 1,001 people on a map of 67,181, No. 22 on it by people. Updated September 30, 2026.
- People on the map
- 1,0011.5% of everyone on the map
- There now
- 12512% of the people here
- Moved on
- 87688% of the people here
- Median tenure
- 2y 3mmiddle half 1y 2m to 3y 9m
Came from, went to
Ribbon width is the number of people who made the move. Most arrive from Google. Most leave for Google (7% of recorded departures).
68 of 739 recorded arrivals shown, 671 more from 570 other companies236 of 874 recorded departures shown, 638 more to 483 other companies
The Cisco mafia
25 of the people who left went straight to a founding role, 3% of those who moved on, half of them within a month of leaving. The bars cover the ’15 to ’26 classes; earlier founders still count in the total.
How long people stay
19%<1y
25%1-2y
32%2-4y
16%4-7y
8%7y+
744 stays with both a start and an end on the record.
Who comes and goes, by year
403912
463413
544514
706115
826616
857317
848318
908419
748720
668821
577222
694623
484324
322325
5926
joined left2026 is a partial year
2012 to 2026: 902 joined, 853 left.
Caliber
80mediantop 10%88
0Eng Scorer caliber, 479 scored99
there now 71 moved on 82. The people who left score higher than the people still there.
Titles held here
- Software Engineer315
- Software Engineer Intern201
- Senior Software Engineer64
- Software Engineer II42
- Intern23
- Software Engineer III21
- Technical Leader20
- Technical Lead13
8 most common titles, by people who held them.
First job on the record for 25% of people here.
Behind the median
Everyone here with an Eng Scorer read, placed in their caliber tier.
- 3%Exceptional12 people
- 14%Strong68 people
- 34%Solid162 people
- 45%Emerging217 people
- 4%Unproven20 people
479 of the 1,001 people here carry an Eng Scorer tier.
80 of the 479 people here with a read sit in exceptional or strong, the top two of the five tiers, 17%. A tier is the band a caliber score falls in, so this is the same measurement as the median on the caliber card, opened up.
Whether a title rose here
The level of the first title recorded here, against the last.
39%Titles that rose321 of 828 classified people
- 39%Rose321 people
- 53%Stayed level441 people
- 8%Fell66 people
828 of the 1,001 people here had a title that could be placed on the ladder before and after.
A title rose when the last title recorded here sits higher on the ladder than the first. For someone with one title here who then left, it's measured against the first title of their next role. The ladder runs intern, junior, mid, senior, staff or manager, principal, director, VP, then founder or C-level. Titles that match no rung are left out rather than guessed, and product, program and project managers are left out entirely as a different ladder. What's left leans towards people who have left: someone still here on one recorded title has nothing to measure against.
Where they studied
- Georgia Tech9.1%
- UC Berkeley8.5%
- Stanford5.6%
- Carnegie Mellon4.5%
- USC4.1%
- San Jose State3.5%
- UIUC3.5%
- UC San Diego3.3%
The 8 most listed schools among the 994 people here with a school on file.
90 of the 994 people here with a school on file list Georgia Tech, 84 list UC Berkeley and 56 list Stanford. A person can list more than one, so these overlap.
Public work
one square is one in a hundred
37%have a public GitHub account on their profile
375 of the 1,001 people here whose profile was checked for public accounts. An account the check missed reads the same as no account, so this is a floor.
31% is the median across the 857 companies that can show this figure.
Where they are now
64% of the people who have worked at Cisco and list a location live in the San Francisco Bay Area today, against 41% of everyone on the map.
Cisco
Everyone on the map
- 64%SF Bay Area641 · map 41%
- 12%New York117 · map 18%
- 5%Washington DC50 · map 13%
- 4%Seattle41 · map 5%
- 3%Los Angeles26 · map 5%
- 2%Boston15 · map 2%
- 1%Raleigh-Durham11 · map 0.3%
- 0.9%Atlanta9 · map 1%
- 9%Somewhere else91
All 1,001 people who worked at Cisco list a location, and every share here is over them.
Where they live now, from the profile as it reads today, not where they sat while working at Cisco: a metro here isn't an office there. The lower strip is the same metros across the whole map.
On the same resumes
Companies that show up most often alongside Cisco, at any point in a career.
Key facts
- 1,001 people on the Zelcast alumni map have worked at Cisco: 125 are there now, 876 have moved on.
- Most leave for Google: 57 people, 7% of recorded departures. Then Amazon and Meta.
- Most arrive from Google: 10 people. Then Apple and IBM.
- Median tenure at Cisco: 2y 3m, middle half 1y 2m to 3y 9m.
- Of the people with a recorded next move after Cisco, 3% went to a founder title next, 17% joined a company of 200 or fewer, and 35% joined one of 10,000 or more.
- Median Eng Scorer caliber here: 80 on the 0 to 99 scale, across 479 scored people.
- Most common title held here: Software Engineer, then Software Engineer Intern.
- Top school: Georgia Tech, listed by 90 of the 994 people here with one on file (9.0%). Then UC Berkeley (84).
- 64% of the 1,001 people here who list a location live in SF Bay Area today, against 41% across the map. Where they live now, not the office they sat in while they worked here.
- 37% of the 1,001 people here whose profile was checked for public accounts have a public GitHub.
- 321 rose, 441 stayed level, 66 fell, out of the 828 people here whose title could be placed on a ladder before and after.
About this data: built from 352,028 jobs across 67,181 engineers in the Zelcast network and Eng Scorer reads, updated September 30, 2026. A move counts when the next role starts within 24 months of leaving. Companies under 20 people on the map aren't shown, and destinations under 3 people fold into the totals. Caliber is the Eng Scorer score.
Worked at Cisco? See how your profile reads to a startup hiring manager, and where it ranks among 67,181 engineers.
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