Days @ ISB

Joined work on the 18th. Had mixed feelings – good to be back to working life but painful to commute through the city. The office of Cognizant looks trendy. After filling in numerous forms, we were made to sit through presentations by business people as part of induction training. Some of the presentations talked about mergers&acquisitions, high-level strategy and competitive advantages that Cognizant enjoys over its peers. Some of it is going to be on proposal writing, verticals etc. We will be using three tools at work – MS Word, Powerpoint and Excel.
I felt a great sense of satisfaction that I chose to join Cognizant. They truly value MBAs, which is difficult to find in other Indian IT services companies. ISB alums have done very well at Cognizant – within a year of joining, they have got opportunities to work on corporate strategies like China strategy, acquisitions, setting up of new practices, penetration of difficult accounts, handling of P&L responsibilities etc. Almost all MBAs are placed near client locations in the US and Europe soon after joining. This helps in getting more business by being near to where the action is.
I didn’t know that Cognizant hires MBAs from only six b-schools in India – ISB, IIMs-A, B, C, L and XLRI. Our batch of new joinees, which has people from all these six schools, will continue with the induction training until 2nd May.
The biggest issue now is which vertical to join. I can still go to Kolkata where they have Retail vertical, or go to Pune in Banking vertical or stay in Chennai and take up Healthcare or Logistics and Manufacturing. By next Monday I would know where I am going to be.