No sense of teamwork or connection to the company. - Programme Analyst Cognizant Employee Review

2.0
2 Nov 2013
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

No "pros" with this company aside from the regular paycheck.

Cons

No sense of teamwork. When you arrive at the client location you are literally dumped into the environment and left to figure things out for yourself. If you're not an Indian you will have a lot of trouble connecting with your peers and with your supervisors. There is certainly a culture gap due to the large number of Indian workers. It's also possible that your supervisor will not be at the same location as you, which makes it very difficult to provide visibility into your work performance. Promotions come very slowly. I have spoken with co-workers who have been stuck in the same pay grade for over 4 years. I am speculating when I say this, but I believe it's due to the number of H1B workers Cognizant brings in from offshore. Rather than promote people, they bring offshore workers in as a incentive, pay them lower wages than they would a typical worker, and then rotate them with a fresh batch of H1B workers after a few years.

Explore other reviews about Cognizant

5.0
27 May 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
5 June 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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