Cognizant , a place where you work, not where you would build a career
Pros
There are 5 reasons why you can work for Cognizant. 1.) There is scope for assignments in US and other countries and that could expose you to world of other possibilities. 2.) A stable job even in this market (2008-2009) 3.) A nice benefit plan, ESPP options, Health insurance for NA associates and good options (though not the same) for India associates as well. 4.) Immigration issues (Green Card, L1, H1B are seriously tried for every associate) irrespective of his performance. 5.) Work life balance is more or less left to associates to manage with the clients. Though this has both positive and negative effect depending on who you are working for and where.
Cons
Like the 5 best reasons to work for Cognizant, there are 5 million reasons not to work for. I will try to list the top 10 things based on my experience. 1.) Career Options: Associates don't 'often' have choices of career path. After they get into the management track which is about 2-3 years of experience, they are drowned in the world of excel sheet, ppt and word which is very hard break from and move on with much more passionate things that they might have planned for their career. 2.) Communication: I am talking about the communication from Middle management to the associates which rarely happens. So the effect of this is that associates don't get to know how the company is progressing, what options they have outside their work etc. 3.) Compensation: Needless to say, it's the Industry benchmark of how low a company can pay for the services their employees provide. 4.) Feedback: Every appraisal cycle the associates receive feedback promptly from their managers who are none other than the guys who don't have much power to affect the employees rating, who don't have say in the promotion quota etc. These feedbacks, though maybe told in a positive way, is always talking about what more an associate can do. Everything the manager has dreamed yesterday is the task list for the associate for the next year. Beware! You cannot disagree with the rating or with manager. 5.) Fairness: This is not in the culture of Cognizant. Even if someone wants to impartial in their ratings to the subordinates, the policy and system doesn't allow that. So don't expect that. 6.) Internal systems: For being one of the top few companies who provide software support and solutions to thousands of clients, Cognizant does have good internal systems. Each internal system has its own bundle of problems and limitations except Peoplesoft which is used for Billing. While Cognizant go and help clients build software systems to increase their productivity, it has so many complex excel sheet managed system internally and also poorly built application (like Whizza, Cognizant world) that compensates for it. 7.) Administration: It is by far the most useless administration seen in comparison to other companies in the same revenue league. The basic things an associate would require has to be escalated and demanded to get it fulfilled. 8.) Training: While Cognizant wants to show that their associates are trained in latest technologies, it doesn't want to spend anything for associates to attend conferences, workshops etc because it affects their bottom line and revenue. 9.) Recognition: Awards and recognition is not Company wide policy. It really depends on what the middle management want to perform from their account revenue to reward and recognize the work of its associates. 10.) Retention policy: Associates who are hired laterally are enticed with higher designation and more than average salary, but they soon realize that they had got all this at the expense of loosing their regular appraisal cycles, promotion etc. Soon they become the good old Cognizant associate.