How to get an internship in Cognizant
Founded in 1994 and headquartered in Teaneck, New Jersey, Cognizant is one of the world’s most admired IT services company. An internship at Cognizant is valued by college students all over the world.
Who are eligible to apply?
Undergraduate and postgraduate students of computer science, IT, electronics and related engineering fields can apply for Cognizant internship 2017. Students pursuing MBA can apply for Cognizant Business Consulting (CBC) summer internships and there are many internships for MCA students in Cognizant too.
How to apply?
Interested students can apply for Cognizant Technology Solutions internships and Cognizant MBA internships through following ways:
1. Online Application:
You can check the company website and apply for available internships.
2. Through a referral:
If you know someone who works at Cognizant, ask her to provide you a referral. You can even find Cognizant employees through LinkedIn for this.
3. Mailing the HR executive:
Find a previous/current Cognizant intern/employee and ask her for the HR’s email address. Mail the HR directly, clearly stating your purpose with a strong cover letter and resume.
4. Campus recruitment:
Cognizant visits selected colleges for hiring interns. Get in touch with your college placement coordinator for arranging a campus visit.
What after applying?
After getting the referral or after applying online, the hiring team goes through your profile and if you are shortlisted, you will receive an email from the HR department for an online test. During campus recruitment, the initial screening is done mostly on the basis of your resume and CGPA. For MBA students, many times, an online video with questions like What are your strengths and weaknesses, which have to be answered in one minute, is used as an elimination round.
The assessment test has three sections – general aptitude, logical reasoning, and verbal communication. Normally, 55 questions are asked which are to be solved in 55 minutes. The test is relatively easy but one needs to clear all the three sections.
This is followed by a series of face-to-face interviews which are divided into two types – technical and HR rounds. In the technical interview, a panel of interviewers analyzes your technical and behavioral skills. Some sample questions are:
• Make four equilateral triangles using 6 matchsticks
• Explain run time mapping between pages and frames
• How a biased coin can be turned into unbiased
• Difference between 8085 and 8086 microprocessor
• Questions related to theory of normalization and its practical applications
• Find the sum of all the boundary nodes of a given binary tree
• Questions on technical aspects of your past projects – any difficulties that you might have faced and how you overcame them
This is followed by HR interview which consists of basic questions like:
• Tell me something about yourself
• Why should you be hired for this role? What value will you add to the Cognizant brand?
• Questions on your previous internships or project experiences and what you learned about teamwork
• Questions about your participation in co-curricular activities
• What do you want to do in future that you haven’t attempted yet?
Once the Cognizant summer internship starts, interns are assigned to specific teams and mentors. An induction program is conducted with some ice-breaking sessions to ease the nerves of the anxious interns. Cognizant gives a stipend of 25-30K/month to interns. It also hires some interns specifically for work-from-home internships where the intern is required to visit the office only once or twice a month.
Words of advice from ex-interns:
• Well-structured mentorship process: Mentors and buddies guide your performance and interests from day 1 and make sure that your transition to the corporate world is smooth. You are given full ownership of the projects and encouraged to think out of the box.
• Warm and fun work culture: You are supposed to work hard and party harder. Month end stress busters are given as much importance as client deliverables. You are also encouraged to share your feedback with your mentors and seniors.
A couple of pro-tips:
• Speed is important for assessment tests. Don’t spend more than 1-1.5 minutes on a question; if you don’t know the answer, leave it.
• During interviews, many questions are asked on the topics mentioned on your resume like skills, previous projects, known languages etc. Make sure that you are well acquainted with every single word written on your resume; don’t write anything just to show off.
• Resources: For clearing the assessment test, you can refer to this Q&A site and R.S. Aggarwal Quantitative Aptitude book. For technical interviews, practice a lot of these programming quizzes.
Is software industry or business consulting your calling? Check out these cool computer science internships and MBA internships and register here to take the first step towards your dream career. If you have done an internship at Cognizant, we would love to hear; please comment below.
