SRE offer at Duo Security, Advise please

Jul 1, 2021 13 Comments

After a rich/wonderful 5 years at my company, it's time I transitioned to another role/company to diversify and expand my skills in more relevant technologies today.
To clarify I've built our existing Microsoft SQL server analysis services team from scratch and implemented s ton of backend automation and Azure devops CI/CD infrastructure. However I feel like I'm reaching a limit with the tools I can experience, that I find in huge demand. For example, I want to work in linux OS again and i want to incorporate container/orchestration technology as well as IaC, which I don't have the option to do at my current company.

After a month of interviews, I've received a verbal offer from Duo Security for an SRE Delivery engineer, its fully remote as well, and I think the TC package will be satisfactory.

While I wait to receive the letter, I wanted to hear from folks about what they think. Glassdoor reviews all praise Duo, and they say theres nothing like it.
At the same time, the acquisition by cisco scares the hell outta me particularly in terms of job security.

To be fair, my company has restructured and laid off people 3 times in the 4.5 years ive been with them. But during the pandemic they've done something wonderful: they cut everyone's salaries 20~25% temporarily and then after 5 months they issued everyone a check with interest. That move made me hesitant to ever leave them.
Now I heard Cisco has been also a proponent of layoffs, but apparently umbrellas aren't impacted. And also even cisco offered multiple options like 20% paycut-4 day workweek, which I think is great.

I love my current company and they have a very bright future in EV's, but I dont think lingering at the same company forever is good. It's about time I moved to a role I've been seeing pop off recently and have attracted my attention for so long: an SRE engineer

I am just so torn. What should i do??
To sum it up, i value job security the most, but at the same time, Cisco is probably the largest company in the area I live next to Ann Arbor and it's well recognized.
I love my current company direction but I dont think it's good to remain here forever and thus I value career diversification as well.

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 TOP 13 Comments
  • Cisco
    hiRg83

    Go to company page Cisco

    hiRg83
    What did you decide, OP? I'm an eng manager within Duo/Cisco and hope you join. Good culture and work/life balance. If you have 5 years of experience, are currently making 95k and were offered 130k, that is likely G8, not senior (G10). That's not a bad thing if the salary is acceptable to you, as you can be promoted to G10 and grow your salary in a year or two if you do well.
    Jul 22, 2021 5
  • Amazon
    wawY45

    Go to company page Amazon

    wawY45
    TC or GTFO.
    Jul 1, 2021 4
    • OP
      @hots4 I don't even know about grades. My company never mentioned these things, nor equity nor what I learned about recently RSUs. Ya when I joined 5 years ago it was a dry package in today's standards 😬. But I mean the role requires 5-6 years experience, so I guess that's considered senior? Whatever grade that is
      Jul 1, 2021
    • Plaid
      hots4

      Go to company page Plaid

      hots4
      I’d confirm with the recruiter. Senior is grade 10 at Cisco.
      Jul 1, 2021
  • Hi, I have an interview lined up for exactly the same, can you please assist? Possible if I dm you?
    Feb 15 0
  • Cisco
    BMgs83

    Go to company page Cisco

    BMgs83
    A lot of SREs that joined in the last 2 years are leaving, so Duo SRE is sort of going through a refresh.

    That said, some of the original pre-aquisition seniors/architects are still around. I think they're incentivized to because they made quite a bit when cisco bought Duo and aren't simply making 130-250k/year.
    Nov 2, 2021 0