Cisco Meraki Vice President, Engineering and Supply Chain Morgan Teachworth Explains Why Proximity Matters in Tech

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Morgan Teachworth is the vice president, engineering and supply chain, at Cisco Meraki. Cisco Meraki connects passionate people by simplifying their workplace. Global clients, including startups, Fortune 500 companies, nonprofits, airports, hospitals, schools and many others, rely on the company’s powerful cloud-managed networking solutions for seamless connection.

Don’t wait for another four-year stock grant

I had been with NVIDIA for about four years. I had done two things in that four years: one, I ran out [of] my original four-year vest from my first job, and I had discovered that I didn’t particularly care for being an RTL programmer.

In fact, I didn’t particularly care for computer programming—that was purely [because] I didn’t like sitting in a cubicle. I didn’t like working… solely [on] a computer screen all day. I was with a lot of people who really love that work, and I just didn’t.

… I’d studied mechanical engineering and electrical engineering, so even though I hadn’t been working in it, I basically said, yes, yes, I can. I don’t know how I’m going to do it, but I’m going to get in there. And I am going to make that part of your startup happen. Everything has unfolded from there.

The importance of proximity early in your career

I think whether it’s the physical locality or… the people, what it comes down to is access and… understanding what kinds of opportunities are available.

… The first thing to do, whether it’s by location, or whether it’s just by association, is getting proximate to people who can explain [the tech industry], or at least help you live near it so that you understand, “Oh, I know what it’s going to be like to go work in a company. I know… the difference between operations and product management and support engineering versus pure engineering…”

Now, the second piece… is just how are you going to find the opportunity to get into it, and I do think that being near it [the industry] is going to help.

You know, if I had applied blind[ly] to the two companies [NVIDIA and Meraki] to do this work, I don’t know that I ever would have gotten a shot.

But the fact that I knew some other folks, the fact that we were all early on and taking a risk on each other, opened up a huge opportunity for me. I walked through that door and never looked back. I think a lot of folks who just aren’t near those opportunities are going to have a hard time doing that.

Is the digital divide real?

When we talk about the digital divide, it’s real. But it is… decreasing…

More people are getting at least regular access, and that’s the first step—the network[ing with] staff, the access to the information, the ability to talk to people. It’s the first move towards a more inclusive working environment that can bring the entire marketplace together.

Now, once you’ve got it [access], you do have to figure out how to take advantage of it. It’s not just enough to have the access… they have to have some extra help to get there. And that’s where just being surrounded by or even meeting or paying attention to the few people around you who can point you in the right direction is super valuable.

How to pick a company to bet your career on

It’s a weird combination of needing to be patient for the success or… the growth of your career but also being completely impatient about the business itself or the work that you’re doing on a week-to-week basis.

Being able to hold these two thoughts… but [knowing] I have to be patient and look for the opportunities [and] actually put in the hard work and the elbow grease to take advantage of them—that’s a real cognitive dissonance that people can suffer from.

The flash of success of people on the internet—the Twitter phenomenon of seeing all these very successful, very noisy people—can really be a distraction from the work that actually has to get done.

How a hybrid or in-office work schedule can be beneficial to your career

… If you aren’t going to move to a tech hub, look for a job where you get the opportunity to go in[to the office] on occasion… [and] to and from wherever… the in-person action is…

I am going to recommend, especially for folks who are early-career, that they take the opportunity to get proximal—physically get where the company is still trying to take action—just to try to open up those doors or learn the things that they otherwise won’t be able to get exposure to.

The value of working at a large company

It’s a tremendous privilege as a little young BU [business unit] or a startup to have that protection and be part of that [larger company’s] umbrella. It’s not common.

… If you are in any company and you see an opportunity to be part of a growth area, [do] it. You would be foolish not to take that opportunity.

The flip side [is] if you’re [at] a growing company and a big one buys you, you’re foolish not to take advantage of the security and the connections that the big brother… is going to bring you…

Big companies… can be fantastic opportunities… The important thing is to remember that all big companies have a lot of mobility [available] in them for energetic folks or people who really have the ambition to drive their careers to move into areas that are taking risks and going fast.

If you are looking for some of that just-solid stability [to] get a solid base [in] your career, a medium-sized or big company is not a bad idea. What is a bad idea is letting [a big company] become a ticket to stagnation, which you do not have to do.

Cisco Meraki careers: What are the available job openings?

We are hiring for all… roles now, across engineering, hardware and supply chain. It’s just so many. I’ve got 50 different job descriptions out there right now.

We also have a new investment in IoT, which for Meraki, is surveillance cameras and sensors… That’s a real innovation space for us. We’re doing a lot of hiring in that space right now.

And on the supply chain… we’re experimenting with new methods or new types of resiliency in a way that is really exciting… There [are] always developments there. Cisco drives a top, worldwide supply chain. You know, the best tech everywhere is being piled into it [the supply chain] around the world to try and solve the old superglobal just-in-time delivery system… so it’s a really exciting space, and we’re hiring a lot there.

Everywhere across the company is hiring like mad gangbusters right now. There are just a lot of opportunities.