Cognizant reviews

3.6

69% would recommend to a friend

(120,905 total reviews)
avatar

Ravi Kumar S

61% approve of CEO

64% positive business outlook

Cognizant has an employee rating of 3.6 out of 5 stars, based on 120,905 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The Cognizant employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Tecnologia da informação industry (3.7 stars).

Reviews by job title

121K reviews
1.0
Aug 10, 2020
Recommend
Business Outlook

Pros

The only "Pro" I can think of is that I knew it was such a toxic work environment that I needed to leave. So, quitting was the only pro to this job at Cognizant.

Cons

I can't stress enough what a truly toxic culture exists at Cognizant. During my short-lived stint at this hellish place, I witnessed corruption, intimidation and willful neglect by Cognizant team members and the leadership team. I was instructed on a routine basis to falsify my time recording to give the appearance that we were providing the contracted level of support with clients regardless of the amount of time we actually spent working on those accounts. So, if Client A was paying for .5 FTE then, no matter what, you recorded 20 hours for that client. Speaking of clients - of the 4 major accounts I supported, I guarantee none of them realized that contract obligations were not being met or were not being done to the letter of the contract. Many projects required the resources to be in the US but more often than not, they were actually in India or Canada. Most Indian employees in the US would run into Visa issues and end up moving to Canada for the remainder of the project. Standard problem resolution was often ignored and what could have been a minor issue would routinely turn into an escalation/crisis because leaders would not make timely decisions or provide necessary approvals. For example, any communication to a client would typically require legal, privacy and senior director approval before it could be delivered. The idea was to ensure that only the absolute minimum information was to be provided out of fear of lawsuits or losing business. Never admit wrongdoing, fudge the impact and outright lie about the remediation efforts. There is no work-life balance - as countless others have mentioned, you were expected to be available 24/7, which really wasn't hard considering senior managers only got 12 vacation days a year. If you have team members in India then expect to be on calls at all hours of the night to meet client obligations. Disorganized is too kind a word for Cognizant. It's a trainwreck - imagine traveling to a remote location to conduct work only to find out the location you were sent to had, a) no idea you were coming and b) none of the services or client support resources that were listed as being at that location. This was a routine occurrence. Finally - there is such a high turnover and general disdain for the organization that it is nearly impossible to forge any partnerships or build a rapport with your department. No culture, no conversations, no interest in co-workers. It was a miserable existence. I'm thankful I got out before it ruined the rest of my career.

2.0
Feb 27, 2020
Recommend
Business Outlook

Pros

Most of the people are highly talented and friendly. The main office environment is great. Some client sites, not so much.

Cons

The talent is hindered by traditional consulting type-A personalities (hiding in hoodies or brogues) who swagger around saying lots of deep insightful words, but deliver little and spend lots of time playing at politics to protect their jobs. Try and challenge them and you'll find yourself with a P45. If they loose a client due to incompetence, you'll also find yourself looking elsewhere. This is less a factor of the recent Cognizant takeover (which has caused typical) disruption, but a problematic leadership sub-culture that has developed over recent years. I hope it gets addressed and protected from the arrogance-driven culture that is a feature of every large consulting firm.

1.0
Sep 20, 2018

Joke of a Company

Recommend
Business Outlook

Pros

Absolutely nothing: full slavery for peanuts!!!

Cons

- They pay peanuts - No Relocation Package for people coming from abroad. You have to find your accommodation, open the bank account and go to the public offices for opening the fiscal code ALONE. - They pay the cafeteria vouchers after 3 months. But normally we eat every day, not after 3 months - They keep hiring africans and fresh graduated people, because they are cheap. It does not matter if they hire monkeys!!! - You will be just a call taker: the second level is in India, the management is in India, your life depends from India. But we are in European Union or not? - There are just a couple of Spanish and Italians caming from abroad. All the rest are Hungarians, African and Indians. - It is a BPO company: because of Cognizant people from West Europe are without jobs, because the salary in Hungary is 1/3 of West Europe, so everybody offshores in Cognizant. This is not legal, also because everything that counts is in India. In Budapest they have just call takers. - You will take 40 calls per day, and you will work for several projects at the same time. The clients don't know such horrible policy. - You don't have the time to troubleshoot, because they give the limit of 10 minutes per call. - No career. You will die as call taker.

Viewing 133 - 135 of 120,905 Reviews

Glassdoor has 128,483 Cognizant reviews submitted anonymously by Cognizant employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if Cognizant is right for you.