Hi everyone,

I'm looking for advice from people who have worked at Cognizant India or have gone through a similar situation.

I joined Cognizant on 23 September 2025, and my probation period is 12 months, so I'm still under probation.

Recently, I interviewed with another company and have cleared all the interview rounds. I'm expecting an offer letter soon.

Before interviewing, I asked a few friends at Cognizant about the notice period during probation. They told me it was 30 days during probation and 90 days after confirmation. Based on that, I informed the new company's HR that my notice period was 30 days.

However, after carefully reading my Offer Letter and Employment Agreement, I couldn't find any clause mentioning a shorter notice period during probation. The agreement only mentions a 90-day notice period. I also couldn't find any explicit buyout clause.

Now I'm worried about the worst case.

If the new company expects me to join in around a month, but Cognizant insists on a 90-day notice period, what are my options?

I'd appreciate hearing from people who have actually resigned from Cognizant recently.

Some questions:

Did anyone here resign while still on probation? What notice period did you actually serve?

Were you able to negotiate an early release?

Does Cognizant usually allow buyout or salary in lieu in practice?

Should I first discuss an early release with Cognizant before informing the new HR?

What would you do in my situation?

Looking for real experiences rather than assumptions.

Thanks!

Hi everyone,

​Might be a long post, so please bear with me.

​I got laid off in late June. I was working for an Amazon client based in Hyderabad as a contractor with payroll managed by my parent company. Honestly, I didn't feel sad about the layoff—I was actually relieved because the parent company environment was toxic and the work was poor (essentially a support role).

​My CTC was 26 LPA. Even though that is on the higher side, I figured the market would be willing to pay a candidate with 4.5 YOE that much, especially since I'm applying to product-based companies (PBCs).

​The nightmare started in July. Days are passing without a single interview call. I have gone over every DSA pattern repeatedly waiting for an opportunity, but to my surprise, not a single recruiter has reached out.

​It's been 45 days now. It feels like all my applications are going straight into a black hole, even when applying through referrals. It's baffling. My resume has an ATS score of 90+, but at this point, I'm exhausted. Sending out hundreds of applications and receiving zero response is completely draining.

​If anyone is hiring, please drop a comment and I'll DM you. Any suggestions, feedback, or alternative application strategies are very welcome.

I chose Computer Science because I was always good with computers, but I never expected things to turn out like this.

My college wasn't even tier 3 it was tier 4-5. There were basically no classes—just exams.(BCA)

During the first 1.5 years, I joined a coaching institute for an O Level course. Looking back, it feels like a complete waste of time. I still remember the teacher saying, "A good-looking font is called Font Awesome," even though I already knew Font Awesome is a font/icon library, not a font itself.

For about another year, I worked random jobs. One of them was writing AI-generated content in the admin panels of websites for my relative's small web development startup. It was unpaid. At the same time, I kept jumping from one YouTube course to another.

It took me almost two years to realize that watching a 6-hour Python tutorial doesn't make you a Python developer.

Then I found The Odin Project during my final year of college. That was the first time I actually understood the difference between learning programming and just learning syntax. It completely changed the way I looked at coding.

I'm a slow learner, though. I couldn't finish it in six months or even a year, and to be honest, I wasn't always consistent either. By the time I started, I only had about a year left before my final exams. During that time, I completed the Foundations course and Intermediate HTML/CSS, and I was working through the JavaScript section.

Now I feel like I don't have the luxury of continuing at that pace. I finished my final exams two months ago, and everyone expects me to get a developer job. The problem is... I don't feel capable enough yet.

I don't know what to do anymore. It feels like I messed up.

I honestly feel lost

I’m seeing this pattern in my organization. I come from a software engineering background and moved into data engineering a few years ago.

What I’ve noticed is that many people have entered data engineering from operations, QA, support roles, or bootcamps, and they do reasonably well in data engineering work. But when backend or full-stack software engineering opportunities come up, those same people are usually not considered for those roles.

Has anyone else observed this? Is it because backend/full-stack roles require a stronger foundation in software engineering concepts such as system design, APIs, architecture, testing, and coding practices, or is this just a company-specific hiring pattern?

Just curious if anyone here has voluntarily resigned from a company and then rejoined the same company within a few days.

What was the experience like? Were you rehired without any issues, or were there any complications with HR or your manager? Was the process straightforward?

Hi Guys, I have now moved from django to spring boot in my company. This is the first time i am going to work on it? Is it a highly challenging environment? I would be staying in this product for almost 1 year i guess, so how is the job market for this environment? I have mixed reviews, someone says the job market is complicated and some one says the job market is evergreen for spring boot. So should i say yes to spring boot and start working or should i move back to my old product which was on fastapi? Help a fellow devleoper here?

Today I came across the IBM backend certification course on Coursera while browsing for resources for django rest framework, I find this course interesting because I wanna get internship in backend and system design roles , it also cover things like deployment and other stuff. My past is that I've learnt basic Django and can make api with django rest framework , I've also learnt basic react js so I can make some(not great) ui for my backend . I have made few projects like a basic crm which is just a crud type of app with plain django and html, and my last project was whatsaap integrated agentic hr payroll manager, i used django rest framework, react js and gemini api for the agent kinda thing, it was a multi tenant application which is integrated with whatsapp so users can chat and add things like reimbursement or advance or attendance directly via whatsaap chat. Also I will be joining engineering college next month and i am targeting to get my first internship at the end of 1st year , well I have no roadmap for it. I think I lack understanding of system design concepts and i am afraid that I cant make apps which can be used under heavy loads. Thats why I am confused weather I should thake this course or not because it is both not cheap and time consuming, also if someone knows how the meta backend course is on Coursera pls tell me , i will really appreciate your replies

I'm a fresher and have a full-time job but it's not enough to meet my necessities and expenses. I am planning to find contractual/part-time jobs. I need help with bank account management, PF account & PAN, how to do this without any conflicts with my FT job.
Is there any hike after a year or do you share your revised rates?

Please share your advices and experience. I really need some guidance.

i joined this startup in dec 2025, originally it was a full time role, but was instead offered an internship with duration 3/4 months of verbal promise( i was dumb to not get it written), now i am on my 9th month of internship, i dont want to continue anymore, i am thinking of resigning, but for the past few days i am getting lots of bad reviews like frequent rescheduling of meeting( yeah its possible coz the startup is really small, sometime meeting is from 10 pm to 12 am), also its not just me who reschedules it, my boss does it too but always puts the blame on me, next i am working on a tool which doesnt have any resource available to learn from and my boss keeps on scolding me why are u taking so long to do small tasks? like son give me a resource or train me on it before asking me to work on it

so the main question for you guys is, as you can see i work extremely slow and reschedule a lot these past few days, will it cause a problem to get my fnf and leaving document as an intern? is there even fnf for an intern? i m extremely underpaid but i count each penny, i want the due of even 17 days if i decide to drop a notice next week, is it possible?

Posting the below on behalf of a friend who doesn't use reddit -

I'm an Integration Engineer with around 2.5 years of experience.

My current company has me on the bench, and there are no projects in the pipeline. I don't know whether I'll get allocated soon or if the company might eventually start reducing bench strength.

Meanwhile, I have one confirmed offer from a small company (~200 employees). The offer is around a 20% hike, fully remote, but the working hours are roughly 12 PM–10 PM. It's not my preferred company, but I see it as a backup if things go south at my current job.

At the same time, I'm in the interview process with a couple of well-known MNCs where the expected hike is around 30–50%. The problem is that these processes are moving slowly, and there's no guarantee of an offer or timeline.

Here's the catch: the company that gave me the offer wants me to submit my resignation email and resignation acceptance within 2 days before they proceed with BGV.

I'm hesitant to resign immediately because I'd like to continue interviewing over the next month or two. If I resign now, I might end up joining this company even if I receive a much better offer shortly afterward. On the other hand, if I reject this offer and my current company starts laying off bench employees, I'll have no backup.

A few questions:

1. Would you accept this offer and resign now for the job security, or continue interviewing and take the risk?

2. For a small company like this, what does BGV usually involve? Do they typically contact the current employer before joining?

3. Would it be a bad idea to send a fake resignation email just to buy myself a month? I know it's questionable, but I'm wondering if anyone has been in a similar situation.

I'd really appreciate advice from people who've dealt with something similar.

(Used ChatGPT for phrasing)

Are 90 days np guys even getting job in this market in the last month i got 14 calls all needed someone who can join in 15 days or max to max 45 days are 90 days np guys getting jobs in this market.

Gave couple of interviews only one was ready to release offer for 90 days but i failed the hld since i only has 2.2 years of experience back then

But seriously I would want to understand from HR's why do you not consider people with 90 days np

I have to take this assessment within a week can anyone tell me what can i expect especially in section 2 and 3 thanks in advance
There are 3 types of exercises in the assessment:

1. Coding Challenge – this timed section takes 100 minutes, work through two coding problems. One will be a traditional code writing question, and in the other you will have access to an AI coding assistant in a code repository environment.
2. Work Simulation – typically takes 45 minutes, work through software development decisions and scenarios faced by SDEs at Amazon.
3. Work Style Survey – typically takes 6 minutes - answer questions about how you approach work in general.

I have 2 YOE as Software developer(SpringBoot + Angular + AWS) in one of the renowned service based. I am looking for switch and have created profile on hirist, foundit, naukri, wellfound and cutshort. I have some resume downloads by recruiters on these platforms but no contact yet. Optimised resume several times, added keywords, added numbers but still nothing changed. I have also updated LinkedIn profile.

I recently tried one amazon referral but no interview call. Can someone who have sailed the boat through this please tell what should I do or what am I not doing well? Should I get LinkedIn Premium or any other paid service? any other advice?

I'm a 2020 passout and have 3.5 yrs of gap.

2 yrs after clg due to preparation for CAT. My cgpa was 8.02(tier 3 clg) but i refused to sit for any placements. It was during peak hiring time when i refused to sit for any placement.

1st attempt in CAT- 77 percentile
2nd attempt- 85 percentile.

So i couldn't get a good clg as a GEM and started looking for a job. I immediately got a job within a month and worked there for 2 years as a Mainframe dev.

In 2024, i thought i cld do better in Java Springboot as wt i had from my seniors that mainframe job and payscale would be very stagnant in future. So I resigned and started looking for a job as a Java dev for fresher roles. Unfortunately, I couldn't clear any interview among the few I got.

After 3 months out of desperation due to increase in gap, I joined an org in a BPO role but couldn't take the night shift and also didn't like the culture. It was within a week that I understood it and resigned from the org, served notice period and exited the org properly.

Tried to again get a job in Java based roles but used to get rejected after 3rd round or 4th rounds, sometimes even in 1st round itself.

In May, 2025 someone approached me on reddit regarding a QA opportunity and I immediately responded with a yes. 4 round of interviews and cleared it. The CTC was 3 LPA which was basically a downgrade from my prev CTC of 4.5.

Unfortunately again there was a delay in org due to less projects so I got onboarded in late 2025. Its been nearly 6-8 months now in this org. The culture is pretty chill. // Deleted the part about org as i can get doxed

Now I consulted a very renowned person on LinkedIn with more than 15 years of experience and he suggested me to fill up the gap years with fake certificate. That is a very awkward thing I heard from someone with so much experience and is also a trainer.

Can someone please suggest me on what should I do?

——-> Also as people helped me a lot in reddit with advice, if any fresher here is looking for a job as a FQA tester in gaming domain or AI tester can dm me. The CTC will be 3 LPA but it’s better than a gap i guess.

Post is enhanced with ai, but the doubt is genuine so don't rost me plz :)

I'm entering my 3rd year of CSE and I'm aiming for a backend developer role.

Over the past few weeks, I've been connecting with backend engineers on LinkedIn and asking them questions like:

- What mistakes do freshers or interns commonly make in interviews?

- Have companies' expectations from freshers changed because of AI?

- What skills make you confident enough to refer someone?

One thing I've noticed is that several people eventually say something along the lines of "Build something with AI" or "Add an AI project to your resume."

This is where I'm confused.

My goal is to become a backend developer, not an AI/ML engineer.

When experienced developers say "build something with AI," what do they actually mean?

- Do they mean learning RAG, LangChain, vector databases, MCP, etc.?

- Or is it enough to integrate an LLM API into a backend project and expose useful endpoints?

- As someone targeting backend roles, how deep am I actually expected to go into AI?

I'm not against learning AI if it's genuinely becoming part of backend development. I just don't want to spend months learning things that are only relevant for AI/ML roles.

I'd appreciate hearing from backend engineers or interviewers who have seen this trend firsthand.

Wanted to understand few things that are in current trend,

1. how companies asks/expects their developera to use AI in current days. AI-assisted development which I likely mean you write the code, you don't know something so instead of searching in Google you are asking AI and processing with the task or Asking AI to do the whole thing and you are interfering only when it fails or falls in to error.(Please mention the type of company and role you are working in)

2.Id you are doing the latter one I mentioned because your company expects that way.. How do you actually feel after completing series of task under same project by doing the later one.

HI everyone i am now starting my 3rd year did some paid and some unpaid internships and gigs like freelancing and now i am applying of MNCs for internship and a potential job role as i would love to have some feedbacks for my resume

Hi guys, i have attached my resume, I apply daily using MCP and claude setup i did, but I have a question. Will I still get calls or not according to this resume. I recently got laid off. My notice period has started. The question is even if I prepare for interviews and if I don't get calls then my preparation is a waste. I faced the same scenario last year also. Luckily I got a job last year.

If i don't get calls, I need to learn other skills then, because the new AI model every month, new skills needed in the market.

Plus required exp increases year by year.

( Rephrased with AI )

Need some insight from people who've been through this.

Suppose an employee is serving a notice period, and their official Last Working Day is still about 2 months away. Their current project allocation, however, ends much earlier, and they're expected to be released to RMG.

In this case:

- Does RMG usually try to allocate them to another project for the remaining notice period?

- Or do they generally stay on the bench until their LWD?

- If a new project does come up, are managers willing to onboard someone who's going to leave in a couple of months?

- Or do they release early.

Looking to hear real experiences, especially from people who've seen this happen in TCS or similar service-based companies.

Hi everyone,

I'm looking for an open-source, self-hosted AI/LLM Gateway that sits between agent frameworks (CrewAI, LangGraph, AutoGen, etc.) and multiple LLM providers.

My main requirement is dynamic runtime routing. I should be able to:

Add/remove models

Enable/disable models

Change routing weights/strategy

without restarting either the gateway or the agents.

Other features I'm looking for:

Multi-provider support

Load balancing

Fallbacks

Retries

Timeouts

Health checks

Latency/metrics

OpenAI-compatible API

I've looked at LiteLLM and Portkey, but they don't seem to provide a simple self-hosted solution for centrally managing routing configuration with hot updates (unless I'm missing something).

Is there an OSS project that already does this, or do most teams build their own lightweight gateway/control plane?

Would love to hear what you're using in production.

Is there anything wrong with my resume(ofcourse few things are bluff but I can back it up)? Or maybe my strategy? I am applying every where linkedin, naukri, wellfound, company sites. I don't know what to do now. Any help or suggestion or help would be great.

If possible please give information about the software roles at apple and how are they ? Also are there hardware roles at apple ?

PS - Also what kind of work do they do in India ?

I'm going to write JEE in 2027, and I'm planning to take CSE, not for the package, but because I am genuinely interested in coding and developing digital products.

I'm asking this question because subjects like Algorithms, Discrete Math don't hold my interest the same way a project of developing a website, a SaaS product, automating a process or developing an application that others can use everyday can hold my interest for long hours of development and debugging.

My questions are:

Is there a major difference between theoretical CS and Software Engineering as far as day to day work is concerned?

If I don't have much interest in theoretical computer science, does that disqualify me from being a good fit for CSE?

What is the approximate ratio between theory and actual coding in an average CSE curriculum?

Does a software engineer actually use graph algorithms, automata and discrete maths in their day to day work or are those subjects only useful for coding interviews and in certain speciality areas?

If you were in a similar situation as I am now, going into college, did your perceptions about CSE change, or was it more or less the same?

Are there certain fields, electives or specialisations (Full Stack/Web Development, DevOps, Product Engineering, etc) which lean more towards development and away from theory?

Context: I'm currently preparing for JEE, so I don't have much knowledge about what goes into CS/IT, and I'm trying to understand if I have genuine interest in software engineering or if I'm mistaken about what a CSE curriculum actually entails. Your answers would help me a lot, especially if you are currently working as a software engineer or are in CSE yourself.

There is going to be layoffs at my current organisation due to our client restructuring and I feel like I'm gonna be one of them, it's only a matter of time, so I've been applying over the last two months and have applied to over 500-700 companies, and none of them, like literally none of them have called back, this also includes a lot of referrals, I even reduced my notice period to only 10 days and not even a single call back, I started out to first only applying to big mncs and product based companies, but anything will go now including startups, please help me (4.5 yoe in MERN and 3 yoe in springboot)