Two things can almost go without saying:
- If you start a blog, you need to commit time to writing it.
- When you move up in the corporate world, time becomes a precious commodity.
When I started this blog several years ago, I was a network architect at Juniper with a fair amount of time on my hands. Then I came to Cisco as a Principal TME, with a lot less time on my hands. Then I took over a team of TMEs. And now I have nearly 40 people reporting to me, and responsibility for technical marketing for Cisco’s entire enterprise software portfolio. That includes ISE, Cisco DNA Center, SD-Access, SD-WAN (Viptela), and more. With that kind of responsibility and that many people depending on me, writing TAC Tales becomes a lower priority.
In addition, when you advance in the corporate hierarchy, expressing your opinions freely becomes more dangerous. What if I say something I shouldn’t? Or, do I really want to bare my soul on a blog when an employee is reading it? Might they be offended, or afraid I would post something about them? Such concerns don’t exist when you’re an individual contributor, even at the director level, which I was.
I can take some comfort in the fact that this blog is not widely read. The handful of people who stumble across it probably will not cause me problems at work. And, as for baring my soul, well, my team knows I am transparent. But time is not something I have much of these days, and I cannot sacrifice work obligations for personal fulfillment. And that’s definitely what the blog is. I do miss writing it.
Is this a goodbye piece? By no means. The blog will stay, and if I can eek out 10 minutes here or there to write or polish an old piece, I will. Meanwhile, be warned about corporate ladder climbing–it has a way of chewing up your time.