Cognizant Will Pay 18% More Salary To Freshers, Entry-Level Engineers: This Is The Reason Why

By Mohul Ghosh Last updated May 30, 2019

18% more salary for freshers at Cognizant

France based IT behemoth Cognizant has set a new benchmark for freshers’ and entry-level engineers, by raising the bar for their first salaries. Now, all freshers which Cognizant hires will get upto 18% more salary.

Here is the reason why..

Cognizant Freshers Will Get 18% More Salary

Starting June, 2020, when the next batch of freshers is hired by Cognizant in India, the salary which will be offered will be 18% higher than normal.

This has been confirmed by Cognizant spokesperson.

There are close to 2 lakh employees in Cognizant’s India offices, and they normally hire 15,000 to 20,000 freshers every year.

As of now, freshers’ salary in Cognizant is Rs 3.3 to Rs 3.6 lakh on an average, which will be now increased to Rs 4 lakh per year. The offer letter for freshers and entry-level engineers joining next year with 18% more salary will be offered in August-September this year.

Why Cognizant Will Increase 18% Salary For Freshers?

The reasons is the emergence of new, digital technologies, and Cognizant wants the top talent for the same.

Last year, Cognizant re-skilled and re-trained 1.5 lakh employees with newer technologies such as AI, Machine Learning, Big Data etc.

Now, if they are able to hire freshers with the knowledge of these new age digital technologies, then they don’t have any problem paying 18% extra salary.

A spokesperson from the company said, “In line with that, we have decided to increase the compensation of entry-level engineering graduates, as digital technologies have become an integral part of engineering curricula in progressive institutions from where we recruit talent,”

Hence, there is a fine print over here: In case freshers want 18% more salary, then they should be able to prove that they have the basic knowledge of the new age digital skills.

Cognizant Following TCS’ Footsteps?

Last year, we had reported that TCS has decided to double the salaries of freshers to Rs 6.62 lakh, but the only pre-condition was that they should know new age digital skills such as AI, Machine Learning, Big Data and more.

TCS had created an internal team called Digital Pool, and the freshers/entry-level engineers who had the skills such as AI, Machine Learning, Robotics, Big Data were made part of this team, and given double salary with special training.

Maybe this decision by TCS has triggered other IT majors such as Cognizant to do the same, considering that these skills are of paramount importance right now, for all.