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Vault’s Verdict

As a US-based firm with a large outsourcing and fulfillment presence in India, Cognizant is a firm with a huge global reputation. While that reputation may be less strong at present in Europe than the US, the firm is growing quickly, and has set its sights on being a major player in the market. With a track record of success to date, and almost 200,000 employees worldwide, there is little reason to doubt its ability to meet those goals.

As an employer, the firm's scale is an occasional sticking point for insiders—bureaucracy can sometimes be an issue, while standing out from the crowd is significantly more difficult in a firm of this size. That aside, Cognizant insiders seem generally satisfied with life at the firm—everything from compensation to work-life balance tends to meet with approval. Be prepared to look after your own interests when it comes to development and promotion opportunities, however.

Firm Culture

  • "Exciting and challenging with huge opportunities for personal / professional growth."

  • "Lots of opportunities to get involved with building the consulting business, but client assignments are poor quality from a consulting perspective."

  • "I am part of a well funded start up within a great big, growing firm that is focused on the broad range of service consulting and delivery."

  • "The consultancy business is growing rapidly and has a start-up feel about it, which means there aren't always formal procedures laid down. Anyone looking for structure and formality in work patterns from day-one will be disappointed."

  • "Be ready to work independently and carve out your own opportunities because you will have a blank canvas to create your own career path."

  • "Good place to work for MBA grads wanting to understand the nuances of IT consulting. Not so exciting place for candidates interested in pure play management consulting. Previous working knowledge of the IT industry is always helpful before taking up the job." 

Quality of Life

  • "Quality of life at Cognizant is excellent. My experience of it as a consulting firm is very refreshing, innovative and supportive. Managers and Human Resources at Cognizant are employee friendly and it reflects in the work culture and policies of the firm. The firm is exceeding its goals every year and yearly bonus opportunities are very good."

  • "Best aspects: Good interaction with clients and leadership of my part of the business is supportive. Worst aspects: Endemic cultural ethos to work hard and not smart."

  • "The working hours and travel commitment required is entirely standard for the type of work that consultants do; in fact, Cognizant tend to give individuals a lot more control over their working and travel assignments than other firms I have worked for."

  • "Being a company of this size, any decision they take affects a lots of people. Hence they tend to be slow in deciding as they do not wish to make precedents."

  • "We are incredibly social, very much driving together, however there are times when the different practices don't get to network as much together and that makes it difficult to align." 

Career Development

  • "Best: Vast number of opportunities—you just need to have the willingness and capabilities for new assignments. Worst: If you are offshore, work timing can be challenging given the support for US and European geographies."

  • "Best aspect: Growing firm, so lots of opportunities for individuals to contribute, gain visibility and help shape up the practices. Worst aspect: Being a relatively young consulting practice, yet to reach the level of maturity in process and assets that some of the other long established firms enjoy."

  • "Career development is embryonic in my area, severely limiting senior promotion opportunities, due to a lack of opportunities in roles and management understanding on the process. Line Management coaching is all but nonexistent."

  • "Due to Cognizant being such a fast growing and ever-changing company, there is often a lot of change, which can result in a lack of structure at times. However, this does also breed opportunity and requires a 'hands on' attitude to maximise success."

  • "The firm has excellent mentoring and training while on the job. The network of international experience is a gigantic benefit. The formal training is available but often not as relevant as the information shared by peers globally." 

Compensation

  • "Cognizant has a virtual office policy, that allows me to work easily from home or other locations than the office. This allows me to be productive without the need to commute into an office location, and spend more time working and with family."

  • "The firm's compensation package is non-competitive and not great compared to other organisations I have worked for. Given I was a top performer I don't think the bonus is very good. I also think the salary is low."

  • "Best aspects: Ability to be paid an acceptable bonus; however this is tempered with limited ability to influence one's personal compensation. For example, you deliver revenue and profitability but Cognizant corporate does not—result was unilateral cut of 50% in bonuses. Worst aspects: Poor packages for more junior resources, especially pensions and holiday entitlement which is way behind our competitors."

  • "Other than pensions, Cognizant offer few non-financial benefits compared to other consulting firms I have worked for and their terms tend to be less generous. Holiday allowance is very low."

  • "Financial compensation is in-line with industry however, other aspects are not. Holiday is less than most firms with no ability to increase this through longer service. Share options are only given to very high performers; other competitors provide a standard option available to all employees Mobile phones are not provided even though they are heavily used for work. Promotion pay increases are staggered which again doesn't typically align to other competitors. For reference other competitors are the big 4 consulting companies." 

Outlook

  • "Cognizant is doing the right things and growing at a rapid pace, and we are well placed in the market. Our H3 offerings are taking shape, and we are well placed in terms of digitalisation and Innovation."

  • "We are in the lower part of the consulting pyramid, where we are not perceived as management consultants. It is a problem of how we engage with the clients via account managers who are more interested about the technology revenues as they form the greater pie. Hence in terms of competition, Accenture and Deloitte perform better quality business consulting than us just because of market perception and level of engagement with the clients."

  • "Good history of growth that looks like it's going to continue strongly this year. The firm continues to widen its services which is good as it leaves us less dependent of one area and therefore at [reduced] risk to major political or economic changes."

  • "Positive outlook in terms of number of projects we have but one grey area is the absence of willingness to invest in proactive business development. Consultants do not have access to primary research reports, barring very few. They have to solely rely on free research articles over the internet. Leadership has no appetite to spend on consultants willing to do market research on their own. This is an impediment sometimes for consultants who wish to engage in proactive business development." 

Hiring Process

  • "Ideal candidates: Motivated, adaptable/flexible, welcomes change, pro-active, skilled and experienced."

  • "There have been efforts of late to improve rigour around the interview process, previously there were few competency based questions. I do still think there is too much of a focus on domain skills (e.g. project management) at the expense of consulting or industry knowledge."

  • "Interview process can take a long time. The candidates we seek are often very senior and knowledgeable who will have focus in a main industry domain, some other vertical experience and has drive to succeed."

  • "Graduate Process—application form, telephone interview, assessment center, final interview. Therefore looking for a well rounded individual who can succeed in all these areas and is dedicated."

  • "There is a mismatch as the firm needs a lot of domain experts because of the type of work it does but this is not visible in the interview process." 

Interview Tips and Questions

  • "Typical interview questions include: Why Cognizant? What will you bring or contribute to the team/organization? Examples of innovative thinking or delivery? How did it benefit the client?"

  • "What makes you an SME?"

  • "How have you used advanced data analysis? Mention some disruptors in our industry vertical. Contents of a RFP. Interviewer describes a situation/solution and asks the interviewee to write a use case."

  • "Share a time when you personally lead a strategic piece of work with a client."

  • "What is an area of your focus that you are really passionate about and what do you think is the next big thing in that focus area?" 

Diversity and Social Responsibility

  • "Cognizant has many local outreach programmes that allow us to contribute to the local community."

  • "I participate in a reading group to read for young children at school. Would also like to participate more in health groups, but we don't have them."

  • "The organisation's outreach programme is taken very seriously and they do take earnest efforts to support corporate social responsibility."

  • "We are a global company so diversity is sometimes seen as a given instead of actively managed and pursued."

Cognizant EMEA

1 Kingdom Street
Paddington Central
London W2 6BD
Phone: +1 (201) 801-0233

Firm Stats

Employer Type: Public
Stock Symbol: CTSH
Stock Exchange: NASDAQ
CEO: Francisco D'Souza
2015 Employees (All Locations): 217,700

Major Office Locations

Teaneck, NJ (HQ)
More than 75 development and delivery centers worldwide

Affiliated Companies
Major Departments & Practices

Strategy Consulting

Business Model and Future of Work

Merger and Acquisition Strategy

Merger Integration and Divestiture Services

Digital Strategy and Innovation

Business and Technology Strategy Alignment

Business Consulting

Finance Transformation

HR Consulting

CMO and Marketing

Data and Analytics

Target Operating Model

Operations Consulting

Business Process Improvement and Reengineering

Operations Strategy

Global Sourcing Transformation

Supply Chain Management

Change Management

IT/Technology Consulting

IT Strategy and Transformation

IT Digital Strategy and Architecture

IT Cost Optimization

SMAC Advisory (Social, Mobile, Analytics, Cloud)

Enterprise Architecture Consulting

IT Process Quality Engineering and Transformation

Program Management

Program Advisory and Management Services

Program Audits

Risk Planning and Mitigation

Large-scale Portfolio Management and Prioritization Services

Solution Design