Cognizant reviews

If you apply to their Business Consultancy arm - be under no illusion, they are anything but. You will be expected to go for interviews for roles at the clients (often against contractors - because that's pretty much what you'll be doing). Once you're in and earning the fees. Don't expect any further support like a consultancy would be. Benefits is disgraceful. They waited until the last minute before taking part in the employer contribution of pensions (and had the cheek to tell us that they have chosen to avail of this right to defer). 20 days holiday (yes, 20). No computer assigned (you have to fight for the 1-2 available PC on the hotdesk if you're on the bench), no mobile phone (expected to put your PERSONAL mobile number on business card - what?!). The majority of the UK office is staffed by offshore staff, and it shows in their reputation as a stack em high, sell em cheap "consultancy". You'll be seen by your clients as an offshore IT staff, rather than a member of a management consultancy they are pretending to be (and obviously failing miserably).

- Unlimited PTO. It sounds great on paper, but your time off (both when and how much) is regulated by management. Instead of being secure that you can take time off that you've earned, you're monitored and made to feel guilty. - Lack of camaraderie. Don't expect to go out for drinks after work or have lunch together. Depending on your manager, you may even have to get permission to participate in things like potlucks during the day. - Lack of direction from upper management. Even though we had pretty aggressive team initiatives, we never had a clear understanding of how the work we were doing fit into the overall goals of the company. This resulted in a lot of confusion and projects stretching out far longer than they should have. - Upper management was completely out of touch. Direct managers knew what was going on in the department but didn't have any real power. Upper management was clueless and made decisions that were not in the best interest of the company or the department. - Confusing internal processes and policies: multiple IT systems, no admin privileges on your machine, multiple passwords to manage. Very corporate. - Confusing bonus structure. After an hour long meeting explaining the bonus structure and the payout amounts, people still didn't understand and just resigned themselves to accepting whatever they got. - No clear communication about raises or promotions. Raises usually come around sometime between January and April. By June there was still no communication about whether or not there would be raises for the year. Most of the time, it felt like the product teams were completely siloed from each other. Teams working on the same floor were unaware of the other's processes or work. There was absolutely no collaboration between teams or departments. If you want to innovate within your role, this is not the company for you.