Cognizant under fire for job posting offering Rs 2.5 lakh per annum to freshers: 'Better be unemployed'

Cognizant has announced adding another 15,000 seats in Hyderabad, thus giving it a definitive edge and pipping Chennai.

Cognizant's recent off-campus recruitment drive has drawn significant attention due to its proposed compensation package, which has sparked a debate on social media. The IT firm announced a yearly salary of Rs 2.5 lakh, equivalent to Rs 20,000 per month, for engineering graduates from the 2024 batch. This figure marked a notable decrease compared to the average annual salaries of Rs 3.5 lakh to Rs 4 lakh typically offered by India's IT sector.

"Cognizant has announced an exciting off-campus mass hiring drive, welcoming applications from candidates belonging to the 2024 batch. Application deadline - August 14. Package - INR 2.52 LPA," the post read.

Cognizant has announced an exciting off-campus mass hiring drive, welcoming applications from candidates belonging to the 2024 batch.

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Application deadline - August 14.
Package - INR 2.52 LPA pic.twitter.com/Btuwf2GoEw

— Indian Tech & Infra (@IndianTechGuide) August 13, 2024

The offered package was heavily criticised by several users on social media, especially X. One individual commented, "That's barely enough to cover a year's rent in a village and a few packets of Maggi. Cognizant must be running an experiment to see if people are living on chai and hope."

A user wrote, "Wow, 2 lakhs per year? My driver makes way more than that, working just 4 days a week. Lol."

"2.5 LPA? No wonder GenAlpha want to make reels and aspire to be a successful YouTuber," a third user remarked.

One user stated sarcastically, "2.52 LPA is very generous. What will the graduates do with so much money."

See some other comments here:

Better be unemployed than taking such job offers

— Eminent Woke (@WokePandemic) August 13, 2024

Many full-time drivers and domestic helps get paid more than that. Need minimum wages in IT sector to prevent brain drain.

— Mudit Jain (@DecodeCIVILS) August 13, 2024

People earn more than this giving tuition to high school kids in their hometown

— Harsh Choudhary (@harshtwiits) August 13, 2024

Cognizant guys while discussing salary with the new joiners. pic.twitter.com/zOPn5gBZOw

— August 13, 2024

Meanwhile, amid the severe backlash, an entrepreneur in Bengaluru has defended Cognizant claiming that the money should be treated as a stipend since the company was willing to train them properly.

"The quality of freshers is often so bad that even Rs 20,000 per month is overspending," Vatsal Sanghvi, founder of 1811 Labs, an experimental studio building micro products mainly in GenAI SaaS, wrote on X. "Most don’t know how to communicate professionally. Most can’t code properly. Most don’t know how to behave professionally."

"It is a training stipend. It is an open market - Don’t apply if you don’t think it’s fair. Unlike other gigs, plenty of opportunity to grow if these individuals focus on building skill. But you know what - we as a country want free money and the ones sitting in plush offices have an opinion on everything without having an iota of an idea about the ground reality," he added.