The Absolute WORST Experience in my Career - Senior Manager Cognizant Employee Review

1.0
Aug 10, 2020
Recommend
CEO approval
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.

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5.0
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Pros

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Cons

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1.0
Jun 5, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

A potential inroad into large client companies (Leave Cognizant ASAP) You aren't unemployed.

Cons

It's a body shop. Clients will view you accordingly. Contractors cannot be trusted with most tasks. You must be siloed (No room for growth) so you don't break anything. Your actual job is to fulfill gaps in the client's grunt work even if out of scope. If you don't, the hammer falls from client and Cognizant. Wages well below industry standards. 1% annual raises only exist because legally they must exist. Takes full advantage of H-1B slave system, where employees' families and homes will be thrown into a furnace if you aren't keeping Cognizant happy no matter what. Employees are complacent in their slavery. Management is just happy to get their extra crumbs and will reinforce the bad culture. C-suite is opaque. If you are familiar with India's caste system you will understand how "lessers" are treated. This also happens in a literal sense, you aren't totally safe just because you are the favored skin tone. Takes full advantage of modern white collar culture. "Your racist actions aren't actually racist if you aren't Caucasian." Expect the uphill battle to be even more steep if you're not Southeast Asian. You will hunt for your own work most of the time. Cognizant is not helpful in any regard. They exist to skim off the top and nothing else.

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