If you like being treated like a second-hand disposable good, just go ahead, work in the Bucharest office - Systems Engineer Cognizant Employee Review

1.0
28 Mar 2018
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

- DevOps technology stack is the norm, there is no place for manual tasks in performing operational tasks. Quite well automated, rather solid solutions. - they are open to working from home occasionally.

Cons

- Credential management for access inside the company or towards customer's data center is awful : shared accounts, user and passwords flying around over slack channels with tens of employees in it. Considering the operated product (AEM) with customer sensitive data, a sound customer will terminate the contract with them yesterday. - no training, induction or context, tasks are dumped over your head, often with past due date deadlines - holacracy is used by management to throw the responsibility on employees' shoulders. Real decision is only taken by "seniors", often called so due to the "I was here first" factor, not the field expertise or anything else. - there is a huge difference from the emphasized values and the real applied ones. Sure, they are "open to feedback" you can say whatever you want, they are listening. The acting, doesn't exist though, if you say the same things over several months of no change, it is your problem, you complain too much. - The bonus.ly is used as a means of "tipping" the colleagues that made favors to you ... This reveals Netcentric's motivational bias : rewards and punishment for obedience. When this does not work, then some manipulation and attempt to make the employee feel guilty. - Discrimination is not allowed, unless you are "senior", and can bully people for not being religious and such ... No one acts on the bullying, even after repeated complaints, furthermore, some of the management does bullying too. - Most people leaving are saying very often the same thing : "I'm tired of doing Senior work and being paid/treated as a Junior". - The ideal Netcentric employee would be having a sycophantic eagerness to please the ones above (yeah, they do exist, in their "flat" hierarchy) , a little bit of a liar, yesmen eventually work 24/7 and ask for more work. - The criteria set for career growth isn't met for 80% of the higher grades :). Feels more like a way to block advance of the newer employees which are better prepared than the higher grades.

avatar
Cognizant Response
8y
Thank you for taking the time to write your review, as one of our most important core values is “give-and-accept-feedback”. Holacracy and Bonus.ly has worked well for us in empowering our employees to be the best that they can be. Holacracy is not your typical organisational structure and therefore, might not be for everyone. We’ve embedded this into our culture to promote transparency and give more autonomy to teams and individuals, empowering employees to make meaningful decisions. Every employee has a role to play in everyday decision making. We encourage employees to approach their colleagues and team leads to have a 2-way conversation so that we can all make meaningful decisions together. Bonus.ly gives employees an opportunity to recognise their own peers and reward them for a job well done. We do provide a good onboarding program for all newcomers. We’ve also offered training and different learning opportunities, and are currently building a curriculum of both technical and soft skills training courses. We are on the journey to improving as we grow. We will take your feedback on-board. We wish you all the best in your future endeavours.

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 Jun 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.

1
See reviews by: Helpful|Rating|Date|All