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Cognizant

Cognizant review: politics 27

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3:16 pm EST
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Cognizant(CTS) is knows as Chennai Tech Solutions, the company owned and operated by Chennai people...Really pathetic experience from such people. If you speak tamil, you will get whatever you want even if you don;t deserve. All team members speak in tamil even though you have team members who does not understand tamil, speaking tamil in all meeting is recommended by Managers...you can imagine the internal work environment of this company...Do not just see the profit and revenue. Once non-tamil person enters Cognizant, his life gets screwed up like anything...Most of the decision making leaders are Tamil, don't we have others who can do better job ? Forgot about the promotions, onsite travel etc if you are non-tamil even if you exceed all expectations... Really pathetic company to work with... I would recommend Non-tamil members not to join Cognizant, first get feedback from existing non-tamil employees before joining Cognizant..

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27 comments
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SwethaNelam
IN
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Nov 22, 2009 6:57 am EST

Please dont believe such a false statement given by our friend, I am part of cognizant more then 4 years,
There is no trouble of Non-Tamil people at all as he specified, As i worked across all branches of cognizant in different projects, Most of the Admin people would be tamilians, other then that No project team has 100% of Tamilians and also there are lot of managers from other states, here we work as a Group to achieve the target what ever as set to Go,

There is no trouble at all, as specified in this post, i hope our friend is not a good Team worker who dont know what is team work !
Great !

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Ramesh.g
IN
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Aug 15, 2017 2:19 pm EDT

I'm working in cts, yes 100% I believe that Chennai people are dominating the company. If you are not tamilian then you have no growth and forgot about the promotions.

BLOOD SUCKING COMPANY FOR NONTAMILIANS

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SA in Cog
IN
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Dec 27, 2009 8:33 am EST

A ###, baseless complaint.. I am not a tamilian n hav been working with Cognizant for more than 6 years starting my career here as a fresher. Never encountered any problems for the reason aforementioned!

Am not saying there r no politics or its the best place to work. Environment differs from client to client, project to project and sometimes even team to team based on the leads/managers etc. I can point many teams where all different people work together without carrying no difference in their mind and also teams where there are full of complaints abt managers/leads etc, , , but not a single situation for above reason.

One thing I can see tht prevails in all parts of the company and I wud assume in all companies and all over india too, , is a poor performer from a minority group blindly giving absolutely baseless, evidenceless complaints that kindle emotions of masses jus to shadow out their inability to perform, , and I wud regard this complaint as once such Government office politics tht jus cant be ignored.. :)

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PA012345
IN
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Jan 17, 2010 3:33 am EST

though I won't agree tamil people are dominating CTS. Here one review of CTS - I agree with 100% . Sure others will do the same :

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If you want to just hang around and do nothing in life, Cognizant is the best place to work. You pretty much have to to do nothing other than turn up at office once in a while. If you're billable then you need to know how to escalate matters and send mails all over the place without having to do anything at all. If you're interested in things like problem solving, consulting or using skills learnt in college then it is an absolute waste of time joining this company.

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Cogni
IN
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Mar 20, 2010 3:18 pm EDT

To some extent YES. It is Chennai Technology Service. I had joined as a lateral and am in this company for 4 yrs. I had worked at onsite and offshore and with multiple accounts. I would say there is no account where you won't find Tamils at onsite. Even projects which are totally based in Kolkata or Pune the onsite coords are from Chennai. Accounts which are totally present or managed by Kolkata or Pune managers are those where you won't find Tamils ruling. But if there is a major presence or that account in Chennai then you would surely find differences. How? Most onsite coordinators from Chennai. Promotion ratio more. If you are at onsite and your manager is Tamil then you have good chance to see.

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Swetha1
IN
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Mar 26, 2010 1:18 pm EDT

Hi,

Your view are absolutely correct, since As every one knows Cognizant 60% employees work from chennai, obviously promotions, Onsite opps will be more when compared to other places, its because of Employee strength at cognizant chennai, not because of dominations !

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Abir
IN
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May 18, 2010 12:17 am EDT

Absolutely correct..there is nothing called ethics in CTS..if you are Tamil you can climb up the hierarchy even in management level without any substantial credentials...no rewards for your contributions if you are not Tamilian..I second this opinion that environment differs from client to client, project to project and sometimes even team to team but in this company almost every where you find this prevailing.. barring 5% projects. 80% managers in cognizant cant even speak proper english, bcoz they got promoted because of their race..this is a company where someone can get two promotions in a year and some can become a AVP with 12 /13 years experience without a BE or MBA degree:)

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William (Bill) Richards
St paul, US
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Oct 21, 2010 9:43 am EDT

Completely baseless, very unprofessional.

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Ramesh Devdas
US
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Nov 18, 2011 10:57 pm EST

I was working in B'lore. My manager and PL both were Tamils. And there was a new Tamil guy who joined to our project. This incident happed before 6 years. He used to always chat with his friends but when time came he got better apprisal them me. I had done lots of sacrifice for the project. I didn't even went on vacation, but the guy who was not doing a good job got better appriasal. Its more than 6 years I can't forget the incident. I got bet employee awars after quiting CTS which made me feel good.

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Vinodh Balasubrmaniam
IN
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Dec 10, 2011 7:55 pm EST
Verified customer This complaint was posted by a verified customer. Learn more

Guys, these are baseless complaints who does not work hard and therefore does not get any rewards. Instead of finding out a reason for their poor performance they just shift the blame on to the Tamil Bias issue. Guys If you are not performing you wont get a good appraisal. Face it. But if you do work hard make sure it is known to your PL, APM and PM. Not everyone of them will be biased. For example if you do some process improvements or had done something innovative make sure you mail it across to the entire team with the aforementioned three supervisors in copy. This way you ensure that people are aware of your hard work. And also if you get a raw deal even after you did a splendid performance then you will have proof to complain against your manager/PL or whoever gave you your appraisal. Cognizant is a very transparent company wherein even a programmer get to meet VPs through HR initiatives such as Power Lunches and stuff. These are forums where you can raise the issue and make sure your voice is heard in the right places. There is no point complaining here as nobody can taken any action whatsoever because somebody just complained in a online web page. I am a tamilian and I suggest if you believe there is a Tamil Bias I encourage you to take it up to the TOP MANAGEMENT. I am sure the top management would not hesitate in punishing the erring person as the top management would not want negative publicity especially now that they want to grow their business like never before.

And what about complaints like "Managers asking people to speak in Tamil during meetings". Come on this is just plain childish. We tamils are fretting that no body uses Tamil Language anymore even in schools where they are supposed to teach. There are political movements in Tamil Nadu who want to prevent Tamil going into Oblivion. In Tamil Nadu nowadays the general trend is that People who are a little educated think that speaking in Tamil is actually demeaning their status and hence they speak in english as a matter of prestige and social status even when both the speakers know tamil. As a Tamilian I have been seeing this trend for the last 10 years and infact most of the tamil managers in Cognizant speak in English just to add emphasis to their point even while having a one on one conversation with another tamil guy.

Guys its just plain statistics. When this organization was started the core group of people were Tamils and they recruited fellow tamils because nobody from the North would travel all the way south to work for a new unknown company. And therefore as the organization grew in the next ten years more tamils were recruited. So when the organization attained a decent size in revenues, the company became known outside tamil nadu and therefore qualified north indians were recruited. But by the time North Indians arrived there were a lot of Tamil People in the company and that is nobody's fault. Even now North Indian graduates join the firm but want to leave chennai as they want to closer to their home. Though Cognizant theoretically can transfer these people to anwyhere in India because they have offices in major cities in India it is not possible because Cognizant has huge capital investments in Chennai. Majority of the work happens in Chennai, . So a North Indian has to wait for two years in a project to get a transfer. Remember the guy asks for a transfer to North India requests transfer within six months. A manager while giving appraisals would want to give an appraisal to somebody who will stay in the project for a longer time say 3 to 4 years. And since the Tamil Guys are viewed as peopl who will stay for a longer time in the project they are being promoted. There was a person from Calcutta who stayed with my project for 4 years. He was an excellent worker and every time he scored a great appraisal. My manager was a tamil brahmin. He never discriminated against this person. This calcutta person was given an Onsite before any of the Tamils were sent to Onsite as Our client was an Indian client and we were all waiting for a new North American client that our manager said would come under his super vision. When that came this Calcutta person was given the first person to be given an opportunity as he was the best among our team. In fact two of my tamil team mates accused my manager of being partial to this guy and asked for release from this project

I accept not all tamil managers are saints. of course some of them are biased. These are exceptions and they do not represent the whole firm. For that matter, Satyam is accused of Telugu Bias and in Wipro it is Hindi Bias. Come on guys. Own up for your failures. Don't blame any body else If you are victim of bias make it known and fight for your rights. But don't mask your failures by claiming that you were discriminated because of race or religion or whatever.

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Ramesh.g
IN
Send a message
Aug 15, 2017 2:47 pm EDT

O Really I don't see such things in cts

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Ujwal Kandimalla
US
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Dec 01, 2021 11:17 am EST
Replying to comment of Ramesh.g

I echo you Ramesh

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ajaysri
US
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Apr 27, 2022 10:49 am EDT

get lost you idiot. All are tamil speaking Managers and Delivery leads in CTS. No moral values.

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Rishad Kapoor
IN
Send a message
Dec 10, 2011 11:46 pm EST

Pathetic Post: People put blame on others for their failures. C'mon guys grow a backbone. Will Ya.? If your manager discriminates have the guts to tell him straight in his face..

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D php K
IN
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Mar 04, 2013 9:03 am EST

I want to know to all the above guy's that should i join Cognizant Hyderabad on contract basis for 6 month ?
They applied payroll system for me and will hire as a "Contract to hire ". They told me that after 6 month automatic conversion will take place according to the performance, is this correct ?

Regards
DK

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Ramesh.g
IN
Send a message
Aug 15, 2017 2:35 pm EDT
Replying to comment of D php K

They promised me the same, I have completed two years as a contractor still working as a contractor
Thinking of this really my [censor] is burning.
You have to work more than 12, 24 even 16 hrs a day, they don't even give you a appreciation for that but if you are even 2 mins of short to clock the 9 hrs then you will be questioned multiple ways.
Me seriously not getting even 4 hrs of sleep a day, you have to work on Saturdays also if you are joining as a contractor.

Last thing, if you are a tamilian then you can JOIN as a contractor.

I seriously recommend NONTAMILIANS not to JOIN this company

BLOODY [censor] COMPANY

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Anonymous-Commentator
AE
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May 23, 2013 4:02 am EDT

Such a bad office politics. I think the higher management believe more in office politics than work. There is no work life balance. Tremendous work pressure combined with dirty politics. Several Managers and like how too many cook spoil the food they spoil the project and the working environment. I cant say about the whole company but some projects are really aweful.

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RGHR
IN
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Dec 17, 2013 1:12 am EST
Verified customer This complaint was posted by a verified customer. Learn more

Hi, , got shortlisted for Cognizant - Chennai on contract role (3 - 6 months) for recruiter position.
Kindly share your advices

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C2Hcva
IN
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Feb 25, 2014 2:54 am EST

Hi RGHR,

I also joined cognizant for contract to hire for 6 months. you joined in 2013. Could you share your experiance...? Have they taken you as permanent employee...please let me know.

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NewFriend
IN
Send a message
May 18, 2014 12:14 pm EDT

My friend who is from Hyd also faced similar experience.She was good at implementing new ideas but, that made her to spoil career as she was working from chennai. what ever new idea she was implementing, team members managers, Sr.managers and techleads everyone asked her to present ideas infront of the world as their implementation.The only reason is, she was not from chennai.They tortured her to leave chennai by blaming her with all non-sense things.Shocking, if a girl is doing well in her career, to stop that they made her life miserable, what not to say blamed her as mis-behaving with guys, a thief and made her as a servent to everyone in the project for all tamilians.Not allowing her to go to other company as she will improve there.They have forced her to join in the company they asked her to join as somelead maintains a Recruitment firm/Consultancy.
The only reason is she was an extraordinary performer.They all implemented her ideas but cheated her and spolied her career and she was just 3 years experienced. I need someone to help her.
she left that job and searching for new job.kindly, please update if there is anyother way to join into other company.
A girl is an enemy to other girl . Qll other girls also followed orders of leads and cheated her.
kindly, if anyone can help her to join into company which she wishes please update this forum. I will help my friend.
Thanks!

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preethu
IN
Send a message
May 26, 2014 7:37 am EDT

Hi friends I got selected in cognizant.could I know what is the salary in probation period .

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Nitin Kumar02
IN
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Jun 08, 2014 2:56 am EDT

hi, i am nitin kumar.I am working as a programmer analyst trainee in cognizant, chennai.i am here since march, 2014.Actually i belong from delhi. If you join CTS, then you compromise with your dreams.I tried my level best each time in front of managers to get transfer into gurgaon after completing training, but they told that i will have to work only in chennai and i will not get any transfer even after 5 long years.
Everyone from south india can adjust between tamilians because their language is very similar, but for a north indian guy like me-they treat like alliens and don't interact friendly and makes your life so miserable that you will start thinking to leave this company from the first day. They use their stupid language in meetings and force you to learn their language. So if you want to join company, then learn tamil first and start eating disgusting south indian food all the times.And specially for vegetarian people like me-it's a place of death, So start eating non-veg before coming to chennai.

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Nitin Kumar02
IN
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Jun 08, 2014 3:05 am EDT

And one more thing, without any reference, you can not get transfer.If you are a girl then they sucker b**** people will give you transfer for no reasons, if you are a guy having no reference- it's impossible to get transfer at all. This is the most gender biasing and tamil language biasing company.You can't hope for any equality here.

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kumarcnp
IN
Send a message
Oct 30, 2014 2:44 am EDT

Hi All,
I got shortlisted for Cognizant - Chennai on contract role (3 - 6 months) for recruiter position.
Kindly share your advices . Here is possible for C2H or the will allocated new project.

I have totally 4.8 years of experience in Manual Testing

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Millakoluka
US
Send a message
Jun 07, 2016 2:20 am EDT
Verified customer This complaint was posted by a verified customer. Learn more

Tom Jirele the U.S. data Science lead has a very bad reputation of very degrading to people he can take advantage of, people who are lower socioeconomic status. He is known to degrade woman in the organization of Cognizant. He grabbed my butt while I was walking down the hall. I also hear from data scientist that he know very little about the subject area and only in the company because of political reasons. He also took bribery from many corporations when running for office in the school district township.

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Cognizant employee11
US
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Jun 17, 2016 6:08 pm EDT
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Tom Jirele did take Bribary: Link below:

http://articles.philly.com/2004-02-03/news/25373353_1_finance-violations-complaint-state-campaign-finance-laws

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kittu527
IN
Send a message
Mar 18, 2017 6:26 am EDT

Yes, It's purely tamil technology solutions. Here is the formula... If you are not tamilian but working good they will overburden you, focus on your negatives, makes mountain hills out of a mole and then isolation to make you as their slave. If you say any objection on this, company has separate department for doing all unethical things on you, these depart don't have rules. Believe me it happened to me. They will create fake cognizant id's then isolation of an employee, harass them mentally by sending mails with these id's and change their reporting location every 15 days to harass them.

In my case, My HR was a fake id (physically not exist) only thing is he can reply automatically. I had maintained all the proofs of all the unethical things happened to me by hoping one day i could show this to higher authorities and expected help from them.

But when the day i reported to higher authorities with all proofs, by naming few people with their fraud actions. They didn't take any action on them, Instead My access to intranet got disconnected immediately and i was forced to leave the company without any reasons. I got understood the matter here, because all the higher management is tamil, tamilians will be favoured in all forms and others will be suffered.There is pure regional discrimination here.

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