[Resolved]  Cognizant Technology Solutions — Worst Interview Ever

Address:

Pune, Maharashtra

This is the subject line of the email that I had received from CTS 'Cognizant Scheduled Interview Invite on 5th APR 2014 (SAT)'. It reads 'Cognizant Scheduled Interview invite on 5th Apr 2014 at 10am. With respect to their email I had reached the respective location which here is ICC Tech Towers by an hour earlier i.e 9am. And to my surprise I was shocked to see nearly 400 plus candidates standing in two queues.When I enquired, I was told this is a Walk-In Drive. I was totally taken aback. My question would be that when it is a Walk In Drive why was I told that it is a scheduled interview. I had received two calls to confirm my presence as well for the interview. But still I stood in the queue as one of the candidates and was trying to reach the person who sent me the email and another number from which I had received a call on Friday confirming my presence for Saturdays interview. The numbers are 044 4349XXXX and 044 6657XXXX. But none picked. So I tried contacting the person mentioned in the email for me as point of contact. I had called his number, luckily he picked up and I told him that I have a scheduled interview at 10am today for Control M professionals. These were his exact words " There is no scheduled interview today, it is a Walk In. I don't know who has told you like that and I haven't got any information as such" And I told him that I have received an email from Malathi Sankaran saying that it is a scheduled interview and I have the printout with me. He said ' I am sorry. It is a Walk In today. So all I could suggest you is to wait on the queue and give the interview'. This is not totally what I had expected from Cognizant, a MNC in IT world. I am not sure if there has been a miscommunication or if there is any mistake. But I am really sorry to say that I didn't expect this from Cognizant.I still stood in the queue for two hours under the hot sun. And then there came an announcement " 8th floor is full now. People who have to go to 8th floor can leave and come after some time, " Unfortunately my destination was 8th floor. I am really sorry to say that I was totally dissatisfied with what had happened today. I didn't expect that I would have to wait a whole day. I wasn't intimated about this earlier. This is something I hadn't planned for. So I had to walk off. I couldn't wait anymore. If this was communicated to me earlier, I would have planned myself for the entire day. It was just not me there were others complaining too. I am not sure how legitimate their claim was. But mine is. That was really disheartening. A multinational company like yours I expected much of a perfect streamline well communicated process. This is a basic expectation from everyone towards an MNC. Everyone mentioned that they would drop an email about their bad experience today. Not sure how many did. But I did. I would like to conclude saying that everyone has his/her own personal life and they have to take some time out of it to attend interviews and other stuffs. But everything needs to be planned well ahead. If it needs to be planned well ahead then it has to be communicated properly well ahead. If it fails at the initial point then everything following that would fail. Just like a project cycle.I would kindly request you to please communicate well ahead clearly.