This is an IT firm not a consulting firm. Keep expectations low and you might be satisfied. - Associate Consultant Cognizant Employee Review

3.0
Aug 21, 2011
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

- Growing company: more opportunity for professional growth and also for bonuses than peers (Indian IT service firms) - Above average compensation for similar role as compared to peers (Indian IT service firms) - Buy in upto CEO level for building a strong "consulting" practice. In fact, in some cases you might get actual consulting experience depending on your luck and BU - Ample onsite opportunities should be available, at least after first year. Client side exposure is a big must have in this business. You can earn (relatively) big bucks too if you're working in areas like SAP consulting in the US

Cons

- CTS is not into management consulting. This isn't a "con" by itself but it is a "con" if you'd believed this based on a campus presentation. Majority of "consulting" is business analysis for developing software. For people not familiar with that, it's talking to client employees to understand what they need out of a particular software and then passing the info to the technical team. It's tougher than it sounds. Obviously, IT background folks have a good starting advantage. - work outside of business analysis will mostly be related to secondary research and pre-sales i.e. preparing ppts and docs. This does not change mostly till you're promoted twice so be prepared for "backend" grind and being ordered by people who can "fail" an IQ test (only a mild exaggeration) - Your salary hike will at best, only match that year's campus salary (at offshore) ie if you got a massive hike to a new salary of Rs x that's probably because the salaries being offered on campus were >= Rs x - Unless you're onsite, do not expect client facing role in business development - Given how fast it's growing (and how massive it already is), career advancement is fast becoming an issue similar to larger IT peers (still better than them so - refer #1 in Pros) - unlike other integrated consulting firms, consulting arms are tied into delivery organizations (the ones which develop software) ie your consulting bosses report into delivery bosses. Don't know how this helps building an independent consulting organization at all (refer to my review headline) but I guess that's not even the goal here.

Explore other reviews about Cognizant

5.0
Jul 2, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Good learning opportunities and structured training

Cons

Limited pay growth and slow promotions

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.

3
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