Cognizant - Pioneer of The Glamorous IT Era. Review on Cognizant Technology Solutions

Review on: Cognizant Technology Solutions, Pune.

Just like you always have a special unconditional emotional attachment with your first bike, first car, first home etc., similarly, I still have fond memories of my first job, which was at Cognizant Technology Solutions, Pune. It was just like my first romance.

I still remember the day when the Cognizant team had come to our beautiful MIT college for campus interviews. It was probably July or August in 1999, when I had just entered the final year of my computer engineering(B.E.). Campus placement days were very exciting and thrilling. Every few days or weeks, some or the other fabulous and famous company used to visit our campus, and everyone used to be curious and enthusiastic about who all gets placed in which company! Every now and then some or other student used to bring some advice or news as to how to give interviews, commonly asked interview questions, what to say, what not to say, which company is the best, which company gives what package etc etc.

Some people advised that you cannot take any risk, you just attend every campus interview and simply take the first job that you get. Whereas some people said that the best companies come in the later part of the year and that you should be careful ‘not’ to get selected before that, because there is only one offer you can get. Once you get selected in one company, you cannot appear for any more campus interviews. In those days, people from all engineering branches started appearing for software jobs because software field had just become hot. So we had lot of competition not only from our division but from the whole college.

Cognizant was the first company to visit our campus that year. Later, I came to know that they specifically bid for the first slot for some good reasons. Initially in the morning their team, consisting of mostly HR people, made a presentation about the company, the kind of projects / work they do, the facilities and perks/benefits provided etc. The presentation was pretty good and impressive. Cognizant and their team seemed like a very posh, fashionable, glamorous, sexy, international kind of company. Their mannerisms, their polite and soft way of communicating was captivating.

Then they conducted a written test, which had various sections like -: GRE-like English section, IIT-JEE like algebra and geometry section, some analytical and mental ability type of puzzles etc. The standard of this test was pretty good and it was not so easy. Because of my strong academic foundation/competencies, I was able to do well in it. Then there was a lunch break, and the results were to be announced after the lunch at approx. 2 pm or so(only names of candidates selected for the next round to be called out). When the names were announced, many people were surprized that many top contenders from various branches did not get selected. Fortunately, I was one of the candidates shortlisted for the next round, and I felt good. Since it was just the first day of campus, I was in a neutral and carefree frame of mind. I was neither too desperate for the job nor was I going to feel disappointed if I hadn’t got selected. In those days, I had the habit of being ‘happy go lucky’. And perhaps this habit of mine did the trick for me through the law of attraction.

Then there was personal(F2F) round of interviews for the candidates who had cleared the written test. The interviewers were really nice and amiable. They wanted us to feel comfortable and at home. The questions were not that difficult, but mostly open-ended conversations, encouraging the candidate to express themselves. The interviewers just wanted us to open up and speak freely about their favorite academic subject or favorite book or about the final year project or any other significant achievements etc, so that they could see our communication and interaction skills, personality traits, body language etc. In those days, I generally used to be a bit soft-spoken, polite, and usually spoke in a rather low volume. So the interviewer had to request me a couple of times to increase my volume a bit! But I did show good speaking and articulation skills. I was quite composed and calm and confident, and framed and structured my responses very well. From the body language of the interviewer, it seemed like she liked me, and had a big smile on her face when I said that my favorite fiction book is ‘Three Men In A Boat’. During the interview, I almost instinctively knew that I was going to get selected.

The offer was 2.1 lakhs/annum which was at par with the contemporary software industry standards, but it was huge as compared to other fields or traditional jobs. People in those days were not really used to the concept that such young people could get such huge salaries, and used to be really surprized and awed upon hearing about such job offers!

In those days Cognizant was very new in the city probably just 1-2 years old when I joined.

I really enjoyed my tenure at Cognizant, and must admit that it was a fabulous, memorable experience/phase of my life. I learnt a lot about work culture, work environment, people interaction, best practices, processes, quality software delivery, project management, team leadership, performance, interviewing/recruiting, good policies etc. I am extremely grateful to all my managers, team leads, colleagues, peers, as well as the entire HR team for having faith in me, selecting me, for giving me such wonderful trainings and bestowing such a wonderful career opportunity! Thank you so much! God bless you!