Headed in the Wrong Direction #2 - IT Gal Cognizant Employee Review

2.0
Nov 4, 2015
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

(I completely agree with the first poster "Headed in the Wrong Direction". it's as if I was going to write that whole thing myself. The unlimited PTO is the only thing keeping me here right now and the ability to work from home occasionally. Trizetto was a great company and then Cognizant bought it and it's been going downhill quickly.

Cons

In addition to the Cons that "Headed in the Wrong Direction" wrote, I would add that the lack of accountability, goes beyond just that. I'm constantly getting "I'm doing this because my team told me to do it" without thought for if it makes sense. I've never worked in a company before where people forward 300 message long emails to other people asking them to "take care of this", but don't provide a summary or any real direction. The outsourced teams are the worst. They can't make decisions for themselves. This wouldn't be too much of an issue, if I wasn't woken up all hours of the night by the offshore team who can't 1) figure out how to solve a problem so they have 2) contacted me when I'm clearly not the person who can solve their problem. If they had a culture of empowerment and respect, the offshore team would be able to figure out the problems before waking us up without a reason to!

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5.0
May 27, 2026
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Good projects, challenging work, lots to learn

Cons

The way the bench status is structured

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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