Trending @Cognizant; How does it feel for an M/SM level guy to be interviewed by a PA/Associate
I’m currently in ADP and trying to get into a project. I’m from Azure back ground and one of the ADs asked me to interview for an AWS role. I made it clear to him about my skills but he still suggested to give it a shot so I agreed.
Now, when the interview began, he sent one PA and an Associate to take my interview. I was not comfortable and I asked for a senior guy to interview me and they had to bring their manager into the call who was obviously a non-tech resource. Had some arguments with them and I dropped off.
You may call me insecure or incompetent for not being ready to give the interview but how do you guys normally feel to be interviewed by junior guys inside your own company.
Please vent it out if you think this is a wrong practice or enlighten me if I did something wrong.
I agree It's humiliating to get interviewed by your subordinates but a persons' knowledge can't be judged by their designation. You should have interviewed at least for some time to know if it's worth it or not.
Well it’s not about whether it’s worth it or not. It’s about expectations. Call me old school but I find it demeaning to give interview to an associate who doesn’t even have half of my experience. We are in a service based company and in here hierarchy matters.
Moreover people having less experience don’t understand the parameters based on which a senior person has to be interviewed. Their vision of work will only be limited to the kind of work they do and they don’t look beyond. It’s an experience that I gained while managing 15 resources. If it’s ok for a PA or associate to interview an M/SM then it’s ok to intera Prinicipal Architect too. Then why do people want promotions? It’s not only about money, it’s about respect and command too. If yiubate asking a junior guy to interview a senior guy who is 2 or 3 level up in hierarchy, you are actually not considering the prior experience that the person has.
Its about the knowledge bro, I have seen cases where A level does the code review of M level especially when there is new tech like Agentic AI, LLMs etc. Because as you go up, its hard to sync with new emerging tech.
It should be 'Head' instead of 'Humour' in your username.
Well, thanks for the suggestion. Appreciate that you made some time to read through and give a valuable comment. Please keep doing it. It's gonna help you in your career.
It should be ‘Casual’ instead of ‘Mental’ in your username.
Be professional although you are anonymous. Think from him/her side, whatever he/she did is correct. All will be casual until it comes to you!!! PEACE..
PA can't interview an M/SM level guy though PA has 100 % knowledge, but I respect PA knowledge.
Agree with you. PA are no where qualified to take interview even for a fresher IMO. Minimum level to interview a fresher should be at Associate level with 5 years of experience. CTS also has SA reporting to SA and M reporting to M. Not right IMO and should follow hierarchy.
Exactly. There is a reason for having a hierarchy. The scenario that you shared here is the perfect recipee for disaster. The supervisor SA/M would never let the reportee to get a promotion.
Agree. I felt same while I was giving interview during recruitment process. So far I have been in IBM, Deloitte, Oracle and can say they all have arrangment where senior people taking interviews. But it appears to me if that cognizant arranged a junior person for taking interview.
It is highly likely that for projects also they have similar arrangements.
I don't agree with the practice.
It was for an internal project only. The fact is they don't have senior people for the project. So they ask juniors to take interviews of senior profiles. If you are able to clear Cognizant internal project interviews then you will be good to crack outside. It's that tough now.
And the problem with this approach is client values a 5 year experience resource same as 15 year experience because they are part of the evaluation process. Then the person being most hands on will always have upper hand irrespective of experience. An M or SM level person may not be able to match the hands on experience of an Associate. It's a systemic shift that is happening now and in future when the A and SA level people reach SM level, they will realize the pain. No person, however they try can match the speed of ever changing technology. As an Architect an M/SM level person should drive the project and manage clients. There is more to software development than just coding.
Well I think it's very common. I know one Associate who use to take interviews of M/SA level people for his project and that was just because he knew very well about the project so his manger relied on him for this task. In your scenario I would say you should have proved your knowledge instead of arguing and dropping off.
My father is not tech-savvy, so he comes to me for tasks he's not good at, like paying bills. That doesn't make me exceptional—it’s just that he hasn’t had the same experience with technology as I have.
I think you have ego issues, and there's nothing wrong with that. But if that’s the case, you should have resigned on the spot to satisfy yourself instead of leaving a comment here.
Reach this position, put yourself in my shoes and then judge me.
When I joined, I remember that certain courses were assigned. In one of the course it was mentioned that everyone should be treated equally. May be that’s why in CTS we are not using “Sir/Madam” instead we are calling by the names.
Also I think the evaluation can not be judged by a Junior.
Being a PA I can say , wtever u did is right because once I was in bench for 15 days and got a proj in the co way I'm getting interview call from another proj get to knw frm my batch mate and two PA interviewed me I felt very much discomfort there
Position is not a simple it not only decides your career knowledge, it also explain ur compassion, understanding,acceptance and behavioral
Position hierarchy are given based on years of exp for a reason
And don't justify age or position is just a number !
In my career of 10+ years, I have interviewed folks who are very senior to me. And I have been interviewed by very junior folks. Such situations are quite common in the IT industry. Personally, I don't feel any issues with such a situation.
I try to focus on how I can improve myself and how effective I can improve the existing system once I get in.
I understand the insecurity u will be facing when getting interviewed by low designation but as your from azure background and they want u in AWS they might be checking with pa/ Associate level persons. But even those people will feel bad because their manager asks them to interview and ur not accepting it they didn't do it intentionally too. They just started their career lately. U could have seen them like 15 resources who were working with u earlier.
But not an issue u can look for other projects and make sure nothing goes wrong.
