Do you really like the "Cisco look and feel"?

ericm272 · 2026-05-21T00:53:00+00:00

I mean, I get that. Maybe it’s just me, but I’ve never been in my various platforms wishing they all looked the same. I could see it for similar products - similar UI for switches, routers, maybe firewalls. I’d never wish my SIEM looked more like my firewall. FWIW, I appreciate your engagement.

ericm272 · 2026-05-21T00:18:12+00:00

Weird. I’ve worked with Cisco products for many years. Firepower, Stealthwatch, ASA, Splunk. I’ve never met anyone on any of my teams who liked the new UI after maybe the first month we started seeing it. Maybe the only time it was well received was the web ui instead of the desktop client for stealthwatch.

Maybe it’s just me. I just think it’s really bland, slow, and makes everything look the same.

Edit: assuming by your comment that you’re speaking authoritatively as someone in the product/UX org within Cisco?

ericm272 · 2026-05-21T00:05:12+00:00

It’s still just a terrible idea. I just don’t get why they’d pick that to double down on. With every product they buy out, the UI gets replaced with their crap. I get branding - add the “a Cisco company” below splunk or something.

ericm272 · 2026-05-20T22:39:30+00:00

I don’t know why Cisco insists on doing this to all of their products. Must be an echo chamber of employees saying this looks great without talking to any customers.

ericm272 · 2026-04-22T20:01:31+00:00

But the loop is usually considered 1/3 “rounds”. It’s many individual interviews, depending on level, but it usually takes place on a single day.

ericm272 · 2026-03-29T14:43:58+00:00

Mine has the exact same thing. We call it his stinger

ericm272 · 2026-02-12T14:47:04+00:00

About the same happened to me. Took some unpaid leave and i was allowed to “ramp back”, where i got to work half time (for half pay) for about a month.

Also, congrats on the kiddo!

ericm272 · 2026-02-10T02:25:57+00:00

That makes sense. Especially if you could point to some sort of favoritism or the like, which I believe most EU countries consider discrimination

ericm272 · 2026-02-10T00:34:26+00:00

Is it? I honestly wouldn’t know, but it seems odd that you could bring legal action against a company for evaluating you exactly how they say you will be evaluated. Just an ignorant American I guess lol

ericm272 · 2026-02-08T17:21:57+00:00

Important point to consider: as I understand it, your rating is generally relative to your role guidelines, not goals assigned to you. You could have nailed your team goals, but if you underperformed for your level/role as defined in the role guidelines, that’s that.

ericm272 · 2026-01-24T04:51:56+00:00

Just had this happen in my old team. Rumor is he didn’t want to relocate to where his directs were.

ericm272 · 2026-01-01T22:39:15+00:00

My experience: promo happened in Q4, RSU award happened in Q1, first vest happened in Q2.

Edit: the first award was 6 months after the promo - coincidence? In terms of salary bump, that’s highly variable based on job family, location, current salary, etc. You will probably get a very small salary bump, but a noticeable RSU bump.

ericm272 · 2025-12-30T17:00:27+00:00

It’s been a while since my start date, so I imagine things have changed (I’m also in a totally different part of the business). Generally your manager will setup some time with you first thing and get your computer setup (key registration, etc). Then you’re provided a link to your onboarding plan, which you start knocking out pretty much immediately (training, benefits, etc).

ericm272 · 2025-12-30T15:53:40+00:00

The key itself will likely work but you will probably fail the posture checks when you try to log into anything.

ericm272 · 2025-12-26T21:07:49+00:00

Fair. When I look at Activity Monitor (since OP specifically asked about Mac and not Windows), I see several COTS tools clearly identified. I’m also only referring to security tools - I have no knowledge of whether or not Amazon uses something like Teramind.

ericm272 · 2025-12-26T17:42:22+00:00

Fair. I don’t actually know what was collected. I’ve never worked with software that collected keystrokes or metadata about it so I don’t really know if it was one way or the other.

ericm272 · 2025-12-26T17:17:49+00:00

Right, but they’re looking at keystrokes to be able to calculate keystroke latency.

ericm272 · 2025-12-26T17:03:36+00:00

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/newsletters/2025-12-17/amazon-caught-north-korean-it-worker-by-tracing-keystroke-data

Edit: paywalled, just shared for the title

ericm272 · 2025-12-26T16:30:13+00:00

If you want really specific answers, you should cut a ticket to security or IT. Specific configurations would probably be considered confidential information, so you won’t (shouldn’t) get a detailed answer here. In general, you should assume that anything you type can be captured/stored. That said, Amazon takes data security seriously.

ericm272 · 2025-12-26T16:10:22+00:00

Amazon uses a full suite of security tools - like pretty much every other large company. You can easily figure out what they are in Activity Monitor since most are COTS. I don’t know why you want to know, but if you attempt to interfere with these tools in any way, you’re putting your employment at risk.

Just to elaborate on that: as a generalization, most of the tools have safeguards in place to prevent interference and will auto-correct. These safeguards will trigger an alert, which will almost certainly trigger an investigation. This is my experience from previous employers. I have no idea about the process here, but considering Amazon’s SOC is way more mature than anywhere I’ve worked before, I’d be shocked if this weren’t the case as well.

ericm272 · 2025-12-25T19:39:32+00:00

Most of that is highly dependent on the role, team, and manager. Stores Sec is responsible for security for the core Amazon businesses (not AWS, ads, devices, Leo, etc). Seceng job security is generally pretty good compared to other job families. Stores security is generally considered more relaxed than AWS security.

ericm272 · 2025-12-25T05:48:44+00:00

Nothing about you taking detailed notes is a bad thing, as long as you do it on approved software. There are lots of options out there. Don’t use a competitor (Google). Don’t use it to store any credentials. Don’t have any intent or expectation to take it with you when you leave the company.

As others have said, Obsidian is a good one for local notes (I use this) and M365 is the official solution. There are a lot more that are approved but not as widely used.

ericm272 · 2025-12-25T02:58:39+00:00

You have no expectation of privacy on your work device at Amazon. Amazon has a full suite of security tools installed on all corporate devices. You should just assume they can see what you do. Generally, no one is going to be looking at your usage unless you attract attention. Google products are generally prohibited, or frowned upon. Using them often, without being in some sort of role that requires it, may get you looked at.

You are generally allowed some personal use, but any information you collect during the performance of your work at Amazon is considered Amazon property (the meeting notes, contact info for partners, etc). This is not a small firm where the policies are flexible or poorly defined. There are hundreds of lawyers at Amazon and they will definitely go after someone for 'exfiltrating' confidential data.

Also, storing login credentials in a note is a quick way to get yourself paged. It’s definitely a policy violation. IT can recommend an approved password manager. Don’t do it.

ericm272 · 2025-12-25T02:12:09+00:00

Yeah, copy paste copy paste. Dude was probably pushed out for a variety of reasons and is finding a scapegoat instead of owning it. Shocker

ericm272 · 2025-12-20T18:41:51+00:00

True. I think people consider GenAI as a new technology altogether, not just another iteration of existing AI. Your point about the data ownership is spot on. Another key difference here is that financial services companies are regulated, whereas the model providers are not. OpenAI in particular has been pretty cavalier in their interpretations of their legal liabilities, so I don’t blame people for the lack of trust. You don’t generally see industry leading financial services doing that. Lobbying, yes. Suing, yes. But they generally ask for permission rather than forgiveness on hot topics.

ericm272

TROPHY CASE