Cognizant Associate SD Consultant salaries in India (Updated 2025)

Likes

Opportunities to learn, security of job

Dislikes

Management will not care about your problems. Salary is low compared to competitors. They'll change your project at September and for year end rating they'll simply say we haven't got chance to fully understand your capabilities as you've recently joined in the project. Every year this loop continues. No matter how hard you work or how many appreciations you get from client. "The more number of days you're in the same LOB, the more rating you'll get." (This is the excuse I've got when I questioned about the rating, despite having multiple client appreciations). This demotivates for sure!

Likes

...fications. Also 50% reimbursement for other certifications related to your role. Salary is average, but not much competitive. Culture Depends on the project based on my 3 projects 1. Good 2. Great 3. Worst

Dislikes

Job security depends on situations. Few of my friends were in bench for more than 6 months, happily receiving salary without joining any project. While one of my friend was dismissed from cognizant because of not reporting to office during bench time. It all depends on the lead., my last project lead is a good man but a bad lead, he is new to cognizant as well. He doesn't even hear your suggestions and made me lose 3 months of night shift allowances worth 18,000

Likes

Nothing to like about this company

Dislikes

0 work life balance Even if you live thousands of kms away they will drag you to come to office And forget about good salary or promotion Join this company only if you want to destroy your life and your mental health

Likes

Depends on your home manager, some are really supportive. 5-6 hours required from office (depends on the project), rest can be done from home, udemy access, cloud certifications

Dislikes

Salary is too low, only ceo earns good money, exploiting freshers and playing with their careers. They don't have many projects, so most of the time people will be on bench. Promotions are delayed/cancelled based on their convenience citing reasons like utilization is less (common sense- it is less because the company has less projects). Promotions criteria are increased if you satisfy previous required criteria. Hikes are less than peanuts. Company culture is bad, no festival celebration nothing. Work-life balance depends on the project; if you have a project, then you're overloaded with work and if you don't, you're overloaded with stress as they can terminate you anyday. FEW OF THE LATERAL HIREES ARE PUT ON BENCH AND LATER TERMINATED AFTER 6 MONTHS. JOIN ONLY IF YOU WANT TO WASTE YOUR TIME AND CAREER.

Likes

I have been learning new technologies since day one, so learning is never stopped for me after joining cognizant

Dislikes

Cognizant will not pay you well , Even if you are eligible for a better pay at the correct time they will release you from the project so that they don't have to promote you