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Carmen Shirkey Collins

Social Media Manager

Talent Brand and Enablement Team, HR

Carmen is the senior social media manager for Cisco’s Talent Brand team and the WeAreCisco social channels. Her job at Cisco is to create personal connections to the great employees we have and the cool projects they work on, so that prospective talent will choose Cisco as the place to bring their top-notch skills.

As a professional social media enthusiast, she thinks she "has one of the greatest jobs on the planet" – and has been doing this since before “social media” was even a term in the lexicon. Over her social media career, she has helped several Fortune 500 companies engage with their audience through great content and building relationships.

Outside of her work at Cisco, she’s a world traveler and a published author (find her on Amazon) with another book underway, and finds that kittens and bacon rule the Internet. :)

Articles

February 1, 2016

WE ARE CISCO

Love Where You Work!

1 min read

Read just a few stories on this blog, and you’ll notice that people love to work here. Whether it’s the people, the innovation, the giving back, or a combination of all of those and more, love is in the air. Since February is a month of recognizing love – and this year, there’s a whole […]

November 23, 2015

WE ARE CISCO

Employees Give Cisco Cats a “Paw Up” In Life

3 min read

Everyone knows that cats rule the Internet. Since Cisco’s focus is the Internet of Everything, it would make sense that when they are abandoned or lose their homes, cats...

November 5, 2015

WE ARE CISCO

Cisco Employees Blab About the Cisco Life

1 min read

Cisco employees know all about working at Cisco, the fun we have while we work and the cool things we do. But sometimes they just want to tell other people about it. So the team that brings you @WeAreCisco on Twitter and Instagram and @CiscoUniversity on Twitter (among other social media channels) just had our #FirstBlab […]

November 16, 2015

WE ARE CISCO

Delivering Awesome, Inspired by Graffiti Art

1 min read

  “Delivering Awesome” might mean different things to different people. For the team delivering a workspace reboot, it...

November 2, 2015

WE ARE CISCO

13 Tips to Inspire Your Inner Leader

5 min read

Lots of people think of the number 13 as unlucky, but sometimes, it can be a LUCKY number....

October 13, 2015

WE ARE CISCO

Why is Cisco One of the Most inDEMAND Employers?

1 min read

You like us! You really, really like us! Cisco has been named one of LinkedIn's Most inDEMAND Employers in...

October 5, 2015

WE ARE CISCO

Play. Blow Your Mind. Repeat. #ThisIsSTEAM

2 min read

High-tech games. Creation zones – where you can create to your heart’s content – aerialists, food (of course) and . . . a dunk booth with fire?! These are all things you’ll find at STEAM Carnival, November 6-8 in San Francisco at AT&T Park. You’ll also find Cisco there, as a key sponsor (along with Cartoon Network!) […]

October 26, 2015

WE ARE CISCO

Employees Bring Cisco Tech to Late Night on Jimmy Kimmel Live

2 min read

It’s Oscar’s night. Your technology is getting ready to debut in less than three minutes on Jimmy Kimmel Live (emphasis on the “live” part). You’re not sure if the...

October 8, 2015

WE ARE CISCO

Cisco Mom and Son Bring IoE and Entrepreneurship to Kids Everywhere

3 min read

Sometimes, the apple doesn’t fall too far from the tree. That’s the case with 8-year-old Omkar Govil-Nair, whose mom, Shubha Govil, is a senior manager of products for the Cisco...

October 1, 2015

WE ARE CISCO

8 Career Tips From Cisco’s Awesome Women In Technology

1 min read

Cisco employees, who also happen to be women technologists, are gearing up to attend/speak/participate in the Grace Hopper...

September 21, 2015

WE ARE CISCO

Employees Are Wowed By Cisco’s New San Jose HeadQuarters

1 min read

New CEO Chuck Robbins issued a challenge (one of many)  when he stepped into his new role this past summer. "I want Cisco to be viewed as...

September 24, 2015

WE ARE CISCO

Team Donates Blood To Support Their Cisco Family

1 min read

Folks at Cisco don’t “hijack” blood donation trucks unless there’s a very good reason. If helping a colleague cope...

September 10, 2015

WE ARE CISCO

#IChoseCisco – The Winners!

1 min read

Recently, the Life at Cisco Instagram account (follow us!) asked employees to submit photos via Instagram (and a few other methods) to show us why they chose Cisco. (See the original blog post here.) Turns out, all employees needed was a white-board, a dry-erase pen, and a chance, and they were more than excited to tell […]

September 16, 2015

WE ARE CISCO

We Are Family – Cisco Sisters

2 min read

“We are family! I’ve got all my sisters and me!” ~ Sister Sledge. Now that we’ve gotten a disco tune earworm in your brain, let’s talk about how two sisters,...

September 9, 2015

WE ARE CISCO

Cisco Engineer Turns Fear into Fearless

2 min read

If you think running a 5K race is challenge enough, try throwing a few daunting obstacles on the course. Cisco Network Consulting Engineer Deidra Brown has faced that challenge,...

September 3, 2015

WE ARE CISCO

3 Ways to Think Globally

2 min read

Nicki Vereschagin just finished her second summer internship at Cisco on the Cloud Partner Marketing team. Before heading back to USC she wanted to leave some advice behind. What follows are tips on how others can learn to think on a global scale. As an intern on the Cisco Cloud Marketing team for two summers […]

September 14, 2015

WE ARE CISCO

One Word That Will Change Your LinkedIn Profile Forever

3 min read

It’s no secret. I’m nuts about social media. (I lead the Cisco Careers “Life at Cisco” social media strategy.) Word gets around, so people who aren’t as nuts about social media ask me for advice. I love helping them, because when you’re passionate about something, you want others to be passionate about it. One of […]

August 11, 2015

WE ARE CISCO

#ILookLikeAnEngineer – Cisco style!

1 min read

The #ILookLikeAnEngineer hashtag is the diversity sensation that’s sweeping the nations! The hashtag started as a way to break down stereotypes as to what an engineer might look like. It’s not just nerdy guys. It’s women, minorities; heck, ANYONE can be an engineer or interested in technology. We gathered all of the #ILookLikeAnEngineer posts from […]

August 24, 2015

WE ARE CISCO

Is dCloud “dBest” Team at Cisco?

2 min read

If you’ve never heard about Cisco’s dCloud team, you’re about to. After this, you might think they’re Cisco’s best-kept secret, and the coolest team around. “We are using bleeding edge...

August 18, 2015

WE ARE CISCO

Cisco Employee Earns Security Bug Bounty – 1 Million United Miles!

2 min read

If you had a million airline miles, where would you travel? Kyle Lovett, a security penetration tester with the Advanced Services Security Team is asking himself that very question right...

August 3, 2015

WE ARE CISCO

I Chose Cisco Because . . .

1 min read

Why Cisco? What’s so great about working here? Why do people come in every day to innovate and change the world? Let’s ask Cisco employees! Let’s even ask Cisco leaders! Today kicks off an employee contest on Instagram (Follow us there!) It’s named (and tagged) #IChoseCisco. That way, employees can tell the world why they […]

August 3, 2015

WE ARE CISCO

Geeky Is Cool at Cisco

1 min read

The words “geek” or “nerd” are often thrown about with negative connotations, but not at Cisco! Here, we wear our geek badges with pride, and like to think that...

July 27, 2015

WE ARE CISCO

Cisco Employees Excited for Cisco Rocks!

1 min read

There’s a party going on! An employee party to kick off FY16 with fun and food and friends. It’s called Cisco Rocks, and it’s in part a celebration to thank John Chambers for his 20 years as our CEO and to welcome Chuck Robbins and the new Executive Leadership Team. Follow along on Twitter using […]

July 29, 2015

WE ARE CISCO

What’s all the Hoopla About? Cisco Fun!

2 min read

They’re not pool sharks. They’re not hard-core gamers. They’re not Forrest Gump at the ping-pong table....

July 13, 2015

WE ARE CISCO

The Internet of Everything is Personal for This Cisco Employee

3 min read

When you work at Cisco, the Internet of Everything (IoE) becomes more personal to each of us. However, for one Cisco employee, the Internet of Everything takes personal to a whole new level. Just a few months ago, Karen Miller Morris had her “mom-ness” put to the test when she found out her 8-year-old son, […]

July 7, 2015

WE ARE CISCO

10 Pieces of Career Advice Cisco Employees Would Give Our 20-Year-Old Selves

3 min read

Some of our Cisco employees were excited to attend a recent event in San Jose called...

June 30, 2015

WE ARE CISCO

Hello World!

1 min read

Welcome to the Life at Cisco blog. This is our “hello world” post, our inaugural post to tell you...