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I have been working peacefully in the last 11.5 years in the IT industry and have worked with the best and the worst in this industry. I have seen employers who do not pay salaries on time (or salaries at all - sighting several reasons), not giving proper certificates, not having toilets at the premises, not giving any overtime, etc. But never have I seen a company which has absolutely no human side and claims to earn $3 billion in revenues.
I saw an advertisement at www.naukri.com for a Technical Architect position in Cognizant and applied. After 2-3 months I was called for an interview. Some lady called Kalaivani called and scheduled the interview. I went for the interview in OMR and met a reasonable but technical guy. A good two months or later I got another call from some other HR guy who was recruiting but I told him I had been contacted by Kalaivani. A month later, another lady called Devishree called me and said this is in continuation with Kalaivani's recruitment. She scheduled me for another interview (second round she said!) and I attended that interview as well. I met a lady called Jayashree who was a director at the Whites road office in Chennai. A week or two later, I do not get any calls or confirmations and so I called Ms. Devishree. She confirmed that my candidature is being considered and an offer will be made (first time a prospective employee calls the employer and gets the offer letter!). A good two months later, I finally get the soft copy of the offer letter.
I resigned from my good employer of 5 years with a very heavy heart and reached the 'joining' office at Thuraipakkam in (a remote and mosquito infested) Chennai. An eager HR guy who reminded me of a bouncer in a bar with a tucked shirt asked me for my certificates and past experience letters. I gave him my bundle. He came back in 5 minutes saying that I do not have two previous employers' experience letters. These employers were eight years ago and had closed down during the dotcom bust and I had worked for 4 different employers after them. They had not issued experience letters as they went out of business. This was the beginning of my woes.
The following Monday, I met my new manager Ms Jayshree who did spend time with me. I did not get an employee ID and waited it for the next day. Ms Jayashree was to be in Pune for a couple of weeks and I was left alone to suffer. I kept calling the Admin and the HR and I was finally told that the recruiter Ms. Sindhu (a vamp who looks like a black poodle with lipstick on), had 'blocked' the issue of my employee ID. I sent her a couple of emails and she took her time to respond. All this while, I used to spend the day at the Whites Road office doing nothing. Two whole weeks had passed and finally she replied that she wants to meet me in person.
I go to the MEPZ office the following Monday, where she makes me wait for more than an hour (one hour and 12 minutes to be precise - she was doing nothing during this time). She comes and gives a very fake apology. We discuss and I tell her that I could not get an experience letter from these companies since they closed down. All this while she never let me talk and treated me like a criminal. She asked me how I had the guts to apply for a job in CTS without documents? I told her I had sent all the document copies to her team after they sent the offer letter and it was their job to verify and they should have verified the documents then. I told her that every decent company does a background verification and I believed even CTS (oh not decent this one!) does so. She said with her eyes closed and her head high 'Cognizant has it's own standards of verification'.
I have worked for 7 employers, applied for the UK HSMP visa and have had not a single background verification failure! Now what is the standards CTS has I wondered? She asked me to report to 'whomsoever you are reporting' to but what she meant is to get the employer certificates. How on Earth can someone get certificates from closed companies?! Does this idiot woman and her idiot company really expect that? Never for once did she mention that I HAVE TO get the certificates. I talk to my manager who advised me to talk to the HR head of that department. This man was even worse than the people who carry sacks at the Koyembedu market! He has the gall of saying that I am NOT an employee of the company and flatly denies any help. The agony that me and my family went through at that time had no end. We even contemplated suicide and I just could not think of killing my kids nor my wife. After 11.5 years, I am left on the street without a job and the guys who hired me are saying I am not wanted there.
I had another meeting with the HR VP and we agreed for a background verification and that I will not join them till it is complete.
At this time, I get another job offer from a small company who offered me the same pay. I took it up. A month later, the CTS guys come up again and say the background verification is complete and has passed. I ask them to re-issue me the offer letter to which the recruiter agreed initially. I sent reminders that I am waiting for the offer letter to which another week later I get a reply saying that no further offer letters will be made. Why cant they give me at least a week's time?! They said 'we were expecting you to join', and I was expecting them to send the offer letter or at least a word when to join. Finally they tell me on a Thursday to join on Friday (the next day!) else the offer is void.
On joining CTS, this is my state...I do not want to think what levels of pain me and my family will undergo after I resume duties there!
In my 11.5 years of career, I have never seen such a mean, boorish, unsympathetic, unprofessional and bedraggled bunch of people. I had heard rumours about CTS that their HR is very uncivilized and that they are very Tamil-oriented. Now I have first-hand proof that they are and Cognizant Technology Solutions IS THE WORST COMPANY I had ever had the misfortune to be associated with. If they had their will, they'd start coding in Tamil it looks like and they are ferociously biased to high-caste Tamils as is evident almost all of their top brass are Iyengers/Brahmins. Non-Tamils keep off or do the dirty work and get paid peanuts!
I believe me and my family have been harassed by this company and if there was any justice in India, I would have expected to either get the job or paid for the time I spent there and for the emotional agony that it caused us.
Srinivas,
I am sure you have good memories of CTS. 1000s of people work at CTS and most may not have problems. But some will definitely have problems. Many overlook them or are OK with them. A company such as CTS claims to be process driven. Processes are meant to streamline business targets but also need good people who understand the processes within and outside and have a general understanding of their place in the company and it's relationship with people and society. I would expect people working at CTS HR to have basic human etiquette. In the last 11.5 years I have never seen such a raggedy looking bunch! Their attitude is despicable and utterly snobbish and unacceptable.
Why do I say 'they'? The people who are part of an organisation should be aware that they represent a company and that their words and actions are a direct representation of the company. What will you think of Microsoft if Bill Gates swore and called people names or said Indians are an 'inferior' race? Would you want to work there? Would you buy any Microsoft product? Not unless you swore and called people names or said Indians are an 'inferior' race yourself !
No law on Earth except perhaps the laws of primitive tribes and cannibals perhaps, treats a man guilty before he is proven guilty. And these guys have no right to insult people. In-spite of sending them all my experience and academic certificates, this team did not bother to check these documents and adhere to their own process. They then never mention this goof. Yes, this is not just one person but a team! You cannot say an individual. The HR Recruiter and her team and her boss and a couple of other people too were aware of this. None of them even for once mentioned to help or did anything positive. I found it reminiscent of someone trying to get rid of an unwanted guest. I strongly believe the situation would have been entirely different if I was Tamil.
Mr. Srinivas, you seem to be Tamil and for Tamils 'elaam sooper-aarkke!' (everything is super at CTS). Yes, I have been told by a lot of people that CTS is a Tamil-pro company. Why would they name all their events in Chennai in Tamil (I am not sure how it is in other places)? These are unbelievable things I heard about CTS and I did dismiss them as rumours. But not untill I saw and heard it with my own eyes. You seem to have been a campus recruit and for young inexperienced minds like you these are invisible. Lets see what you say in 5 years from now.
See the number and nature of complaints that are on this website and each is real. No other Indian company has such 'fan-following'. Now i know why they are hiring 1000s. CTS knows that if water flows out but then if there is a flow in too, it take quite a while for the pond to empty!
Get out of that hell my dear friend. Save yourself!
Roopesh...your comments are extremely personal and are directed against the complainant. All the sentences you have written are about 'him'. 'his', or has a 'he'. Please take your personal jealousies and problems somewhere else. This is not a forum to post personal feelings but to express valid and justifiable complaints against any entity.
All documents were sent to CTS HR. They have not verified this by going through this when they received this. And I was harrased after I joined CTS and I did not have experience letter from one company which had shut down 8 years ago. I had worked this company for 1 year only and had proof that I was with this company for 6 months at least. CTS HR made a fuss for the remaining 6 months. Out of 11.5 years, is 6 months a big deal?! And nobody has a right to deny you a job if they did not do their homework. To do a background check is under the HR's discretion. Why should somebody's career suffer because of your lack of professionalism. If you are so adamant on such things you should have verified the document copies which were sent to you.
If a lot of people are turning in fake experience letters, then the hiring company should ask the potential employee to submit experience letters and verify these. If such fakes are discovered, they must have legal action taken against them. Why was I denied to work when they did not verify the documents? Also, they had a background verification done and had asked me to join a month or so later. However, I had left for Dubai where my new employer had confiscated my passport (a normal procedure here - again scared of fakes and people who may run away!). I had asked CTS to re-issue a fresh offer-letter which they refused. Had they issued an offer letter, I would have joined CTS in most probability.
The question of 'Tamils' is mentioned here as this was mentioned by a lot of people I know (including non-brahmin Tamils). I had first hand experience when I saw these people in 'action'...and I must admit they have a fierce affliction for Tamil (e.g. they name all their internal ceremonies in Tamil and seem to be more comfortable in Tamil while in office). I also felt that I was not helped or given consideration because I am not Tamil myself ("Why should I help you?!" quoting Ms. Sindhu the HR lady). I have not mentioned this to hurt any community or group.
The damage these people have done to my career is irreversible and unforgivable. I am told by many lawyers that the harassment and damage done by CTS is punishable by law and that I can take action against them for denying me my career.
Wow, it's been 4 years and there is a complaint/comment on CTS this year too! I am surprised no action has been taken against these people so far.
Cognizant, you are beyond normal comprehension. I guess, being unruly and inhuman is good at CTS. God save all the good people from joining CTS.
The complaint has been investigated and resolved to the customer’s satisfaction.
Hello Cyrene,
Allow me to introduce myself as Srinivas, an employee who left Cognizant in Jan'10 after a decent tenure of 4 years. I was associated Hyderbad CTS, from the beginning of my career. To be precise after completing my Graduation.
I am very glad that you are now doing great, It really hurts when we I understand what agony has your family undergone because of the decision and time you have spent in the worst as you explained.
As usual, and you have expected.. I have a little request to made.
Please do not hate any company for few people you might have struggled with they are every where around if you see. Also to be a little frank I felt very bad when I read this company.
I don't know what exactly I want to conclude, but only thing is you have found issues here. So it's your right to express what you feel, and at the same why hate or criticize an organization (which is nothing, but built on top of people )..?
All the very best for your future endeavors!
-
Srinivas
Also there were N number of beautiful and life time memories we had at our work.. I understand I might not even have at least 10% of the wide exposure to the good and bad work cultures.. but I at least know 1000+ people in my Hyderabad center who were having so many issues as they are everywhere and still it was a very beautiful place to work with.
-
Srinivas
Hi,
i am still working with CTS ... there was referal mail sent to employees to refer talent to a job and i checked all the policies and i refered the talent who falls under policies .Referal team rejected the talent saying that some policies are halting the person .
i called referal team and spoke to them saying under same polices there are many employees are already working and even told her after given green nod from the referal team i applied for the post .
they sent to the immigration team where they need to aggree on the policies and the immigration told me that they dont deal with any referal policy issues
immigration team sent me to the recuitment team and the recuitment team replied saying that she is elegible to apply for the post .
do you know what happened ... all above guys complained to my manager saying that i dont how to speak and how did they send me to the client place to wrk
here is the story ..my manager calls me and says that, my client manager told him that i am not good at work and he told me to pack of the things and come back to india
On the same day ..my client manager appriciates at my work place with the below comments
srikanth is the best at work ..and i exceeded expectatiosn at my work place
cognizant people dont have proper ethics and this is the worest company, the worest HR managers and the worest place to work .
Mr . Srinivas...
Dont bother about this guy. He is FREAK who complaints about everything in life. He was recently kicked out of HCL. I have not worked along with him, but i know people who have. He keeps whining about everything in life and that is all he does. They say that all this is due to his frustration of being a loser all his life. Failed in every way he attempted to prosper in life. And one more thing, The 11.5 years of experience he claims is all ###. The guy is a freak and is one of the biggest liars alive. Recently i heard that he is working at a company in Dubai. I am quite sure they are on the verge of kicking of him out. Don't bother wasting your time reading such crap written by crazy lads like him.
Good Luck Mr. Srinivas.
Roopesh Gopal
Roopesh,
You are the representation of an immature average Indian league of people ... try to stick to the subject matter instead of mudslinging... and grow up ... its people like you which make India a bad place to live...
roopesh ! have you lick the ### of cognizant HR... r u the only one who is telling truth .. may be your friend even not tell truth to you .. bcz they didn't live with him with that person.. if cogni has any prob. with this guy it can do a prob against him under IPC 420 ... but they didn't do.. but they harras this person..
bcz of the same type of people like you .. who like to lick ### of big cmpny fatty persons .. indian workers become weak.
your type people are still slave ... jahan roti fenko wahin chatne lagte ho kutta ho tum
roopesh! please provide some proof us if you are correct against this person. if you can do that i will kill this person else you are ###... ( maadarcho**)...
I just don't understand the point behind this complaint. How can someone expect to join an organization without any documents? Moreover, the tone with which (complainant) cyrene has written is of a concern that he/she sounds more like frustrated with everything. Your statement "she meant is to get the employer certificates. How on Earth can someone get certificates from closed companies?! Does this idiot woman and her idiot company really expect that?" you think your statement makes any sense? Do you think you are Mahatma Gandhi for everybody to know you are good and allow you to join an organization without any documents for proof? You claim to have 11.5 years of experience with no documents to justify that? Your UK HSMP visa might have gone through successfully but do you mean that this should authenticate you to all the organizations? Your complaint would have sounded appropriate if cognizant had done this to you with you having provided your documents.
Saravana,
If you have been working with a few organizations, (which I hope you have ) you would know how incompetent generally the HR dept is. This isn't true o about all the HR personal but it you take a 100 sample HR personals, 90 of them generally would be incompetent and ill equipped to do their job. Going by the complainants record the guy had sent the documents but it was not verified properly by HR. Therefore the HR is the culprit not the guy
Cyrene,
I never worked with cognizant. I don't have intention to work with them. All these big companies has this kind of issues. I have my friends working with TCS, Wipro had similar issues. The problem is lot of professionals (call them self as professional) started showing fake experience and bargained high salary which turned the HRs more aggressive.
What does tamil has to do with it. Do you hate the company just because the event names are in tamil and more tamil workers? When you complain about an organization based on their employee I can understand that is organization fault to have such employees.
What does a tamil (especially brahmin ) community has to do with it?
what will they do if i didnt attend the phone call from cts mepz while waiting for offer letter
All these big companies are just frauds, WIPRO, SATYAM, CTS, ACCENTURE etc etc... Dont think you guys are valuable for them, they are doing business, They will just use you and throw you out. before 2008 there were good companies but now they became blood sucking monsters. not only these big companies even lot of small companies are like that. Th problem is employees themselves. because few employees suck managers ### they started expecting everybody to do same. who sucks more will get Out Standing rating. If you want to survive in IT you don't need technical skills, you need licking skills.
TO
HR CHIEF,
COGNIZANT TECHONOLOGOIES LIMITED
Dear Sir,
We would like put in front of you some of the worst things that are happening in our HUMAN RESOURCE Department (HRD) of PERANGUDI cognizant Branch.
Some of the HRD people of this PERANGUDI Branch are spoiling the image of our esteemed organization very badly.Mr KANNAN, HR In charge, Mr. P V S KUMAR HR Manager and one lady executive are misusing their office capacity by recruiting NON SUITABLE persons at various capacities in our branch by taking bribe and some personal benefits. These people are very badly using their power and spoiling our company image by recruiting the unfit and non suitable candidates.
One example we would like quote here for cross checking.
Sir, recently these above said three HR personal recruited a person by name Mr. K.HARI KRISHNA (who is very close relative of Mr. PVS KUMAR).
1) This HARIKRISHNA does not have even one required qualifications for the post to which he recruited.
2) He is a very ordinary person with very very less marks in SSC, INTERMEDIATE and in DEGREE ALSO. Even FIRST class also not there.
3) Not only this he possessed MBA degree in MARKETING, where he recruited on the basis of MBA(HR).His MBA percentage is also very less.
4) He has around 8 to 9 years gap between studies. These years he wasted his time and loitered very badly.
5) His knowledge in English and his communication skills and his HR skills are literally zero. He can’t talk at least with other people in own mother tongue TELUGU.
6) His short previous experience also not related HR Department. He worked as MARKETING executive in a small private firm and that also very short term.
Sir, if you dig like this you can find out various non suitable qualities in him. He is really unfit for the post but still he was selected because he is close relative of Mr. P V S KUMAR.Mr HARI KRISHNA is not fit for attender post but now is in the post where he is judging the other candidates suitability for a job in our organization. This is really ridiculous.
we are really wondering how this HARI KRISHNA got appointment where as lot of suitable candidates with lot of hopes are waiting out side for their opportunity to serve our organization. Serving our esteemed company requires a hard and dedicated people not like HARI KRISHNA and co. This purely because of KANNAN and P V S KUMAR and LADY executive who are getting personal gainings. For their selfishness they are scarifying the company image very badly.
Sir, for the sake of the our company and suitable and desired candidates who are having lot hopes of getting an opportunity to serve our company, please take proper and stringent action on above said three HR personnel. Please remove the persons like Mr. HARI KRISHNA from the services and give opportunity for the right candidates.
Hope you will do the right thing and save our company image and save the desired candidates hopes and dreams by taking very stringent action above said three executives and removing Mr.HARI KRISHNA from the services and give opportunity to right persons.
Hope you will respond quickly for the good cause.
Thanking you sir.
CC: HR CHIEF, HEAD OFFICE, THORAIPAKKAM,
CC: CHIEFOF COGNIZANT TECHNOLOGY, HEAD OFFICE, THORAIPAKKAM,
CC: VIGILLENCE CELL, HEAD OFFICE, THORAIPAKKAM,
Hi, I got 3 years of experience in the banking industry and I got selected for Cognizant BPO for Hyderabad location. The HR asked me to send all my documents for background verification. I forwarded all my documents. In the meanwhile, i also spoke with the HR regarding my offer letter. She said, that she forwarded all my documents to the background verification team and it will take sometime . I was eagerly waiting for my offer letter.It's been 2 months that I did'nt receive any call from the HR. At last when I called her, she said that they did'nt receive any confirmation from the business whether to consider us or not, and asked me to search for other jobs. If they did'nt get any confirmation from the business then, why the hell they recruited us in the past. I worked with few of the companies in the past but I have never seen these kind of irresponsible and arrogant people. Most of the HR's in Cognizant are very uncivilzed and senseless.
I totally agree with Cyrene. There are lot of non-professionals in the name professionals in CTS, almost in all of the departments. I was 7 years experienced when I left cognizant. In 2005 you will be eligible for applying visa when you are 1 year experienced. I applied for my visa in 2006 august, and after numerous struggle went onsite on mar 2008. After 4 years, when i went for vacation and I had to stamping. At that time, I again got chance to meet immigration team. The way that team was in 2008 and 2012 was completely contrasting. There was no wait time in 2008, everybody treated me like I am superior to them. But in 2012, I was treated like a illiterate. I was scolded, believe me scolded for small mistake of not placing documents in order. It was not just one person, there were about 10 or 15 ppl at that time and all the immigration ppl are reacting the same way to all the ppl. When I went to pick my passport, same thing happened. I was asked to wait for no reason for almost an hour.
I resigned from cognizant when I was in US. I got an email from cognizant HR with their contact #s for any future quries. Few days after I left, I wanted to check with them about my experience letter. I called he phone # they gave, no one picked the call. I kept on calling the whole day, no one picked. There was no option of leaving a voicemail, because their voicemailbox is full. So I was left in no mans land. If they scrutinize the other people joing their company, they should also be fair enough to provide the experience letter who leave their company. I sent couple of emails to the HR and one fine day, they sent the hard copy of the letter to my old address in which I am not staying. I clearly sent them my address to which the letter should be sent. But fortunately I had my friends still staying in that apartment and they shipped me that letter.
In a $3BM company, I cant expect the HR contact # voicemailbox to be full and no one to attend the call. Have you ever seen an american company like that? who ever reading this, have you ever heard of such unprofessnialistic american company so far.?
Now the experience letter they sent is not in the format required for GC processing. Now I need to a get a letter with roles and responsiblities mentioned. Again war starts. I am going to call them. I got into this forum, when I googled to see whether someone else like me had the same issue of getting the experience letter from CTS.
When I joined this company in 2005, it was with 25000 employees and just turned into a $1BM company. Now with 100000 emps, they wont care about employees anymore. So I asked my wife to resign from that ### company. Similar things happened to her lot of times. Not just HR, every employee represents the company and they have to behave themself. I had been in 4 Projects in 3 different verticals, I didnt see one good guy who can manage the project well. They are developers turned into managers and they are not true managers. True managers should have graduate in managing people or business. A manager can be a good developer, but not all developer can be a good manager. CTS should understand this and force their manager to go for some spoken english coaching.
one of the worst company to work for.I have given interview and everything is done(technical+HR).that ###er HR promise to provide the offer letter within 1 week.But it almost more than 1 month.Giving multiple calls and sending e-mails but no response.I request you to people who ever want to Join CTS be careful.HR are simply worst and pathetic.
Agreed
This is john from banglore.puviarasu is very worst employee is your company because he is spreading out company project.please check out the issuse
Hi friends I had interview with Cognizant on 7th July 2014 I undergone 2 round s of interview, finally HR said I am selected and to fill Employee form with that I have attached all my certificate(photo copy). They said HR Interview will be conducted in upcoming week still now I didn't get any calls from them can any one help to get contact of Cognizant HR.
I worked with Cognizant for 10 years and left few months ago. They sent experience letter with joining date & relieving date informaiton. Nothing else about the position I joined / at time of relieving. Now i request them to give in a format with technologies worked, position held. After one month they agreed to give in soft copy & NOT Hard copy. How can I justify this is the Original? The same cognizant requested me to get my previous experience letters in hard copy format.. Pathetic that I worked for ### for 10 years.. ### Company.
I would like to put in front of you some of the worst things that are happening in cognizant Banglore.
CTS people are very badly using their power and spoiling the company image by recruiting the unfit and non suitable candidates.
I never worked with cognizant but I have my best friends working with this company. And also, I know the people who joined there with fake experience (they don't even know mail drafting) on TIBCO with expected salary, they are still able to survive from last 1 year .
Recruiting fake people will definitely cause you the lose. In our country, there are many talented resources who are very much waiting for a opportunity. Instead of encouraging these fake people, why don't you give a chance to genuine talented people.
Sir, I hope you will do the right thing and give opportunity for desired candidates, Which helps for company development obviously.
Hope you will respond quickly for the good cause.
I have too faced this problem after completed 90 days Notice Period ...they told after 90 th day u not included ur old company name like that.
I lost my current job too.They told before 15 days i retained my old job.And Even every two weeks they called are u confirmed to join thats y i not tried any where.Finally i came to know i selected project not got sign off.During Notice period don't believe in one offer.
HI All,
"Cognizant is the worst organization"
Who simply call for interview n waste our time without giving offer letter . I f we call them they will tell us to wait .. after waiting 3 months they will have fake sorry to tell ... Sorry we dint get the expected project ..
They could have told this before itself why? to ask candidates to wait n people in Bangalore CTS are the worst they will make you to wait for hours just to tell your selected for next round or your rejected .
Every process is slow n They don't value for time ..
I strongly recommend management to provide some "Time management Training program " to your employes
Dont show off just by creating pages in Facebook that you help candidates If they have any problem .. They don't even turn to you after getting auto-generated mail .
-- Words with heave heart
Yeah it is one of the worst hr company . I was working in TCS . On January 16 I got a call from CTS for interview in Kolkata . First round interview and HR discussion I got selected but my recruiter was a lady (Lincy ) who is sitting in Chennai office. I have sent my all documents through mail to her on 2 nd Feb 2016 but I did not get any reply mail to her after 100 times call and 13 to 14 mail she gave replied the process is going on. On march 16 I got offer letter and for BG need to submit again the documents which I have been already send to Lincy . So I uploaded all documents in CTS portal for back ground verification on march 16 . In the mean time I had sent mail to Lincy what further process need to be done . Again after several time calls and mails she replied my BG has been done and cleared . So June 16 joined CTS . After 10 days later suddenly they send mail to say need to submit form 16 of my 1st company which is already closed .I did not collect Form 16 for the same company . For that reason they fired me .What they are doing when I have send my all documents through mail . Immediately I called to the HR of Kolkata office, they simply said we don't know contact with ur recruiter.So called to the Lincy and she was busy as usual did not pick the call, send the mail to her at 5.30 pm she replied I don't know it is BG issue BG team know that . After two three days contact with different person &HR . Suddenly Lincy called me and said I am not ur recruiter . So contact with your recruiter . Who will be the responsible for my situation . I lost my job . If my documents are not sufficient then why they should hired me and after hiring why fired me .Is it not their responsibility to check the documents what they want . Now I am on the road . My name is Raj Shaw .
your story is very sad story. HR team is not very good in Cognizant. But the Admin guys are very good.
The higher management plays the proxy-role of HR in Cognizant. HR behaves like their secretary.
The interviewer is not always the recruiter. In Cognizant, an employee is assigned to a project, based on an SO (Service Order) signed by client. Once a project manager raises a resource request, the HR of common deployable pool (CDP) tries to arrange it. They check CDP, they try to sell freshers into the open position, they try to hire contractors - and finally they go for recruitment drive. When recruitment drive happens, technical interviewers are randomly picked from any project, as per the availability of the interviewer on week-ends. The project from where the interviewer comes, may not even have raised the resource requirement. So the interviewer may not be able to tell much about the recruitment related queries - only the HR can tell. The interviewer gave you a cold shoulder, because its not a matter of her interest. The actual recruiting manager may have been madly looking for new hires to complete his project, and probably he never even got to see your face. In Cognizant, if HR gets a nod from the Associate Director level, the HR will do whatever it takes - HR will ignore BG, or the HR will arrange for counterfeit documents to fill up the gap in BG, because BG is often times mandated by the client side.
AD employees are the real bosses in Cognizant - all the power is vested in their hands. If you are on good terms with one AD in Cognizant, you have a superb career ahead. But you have to build the rapport with them. You have to give them what they exactly need, in terms of delivery or resource training or bringing in new business for the business unit.
They check everything about the employee, but they submit fake resumes of their own employees to USCIS. They will even show a QA resource as directory with fake reporting structure and apply green card in the EB1 Category. That is their level of ethics.