Why does one stay on in Cognizant?

Recently, I was interviewed for an article on our company-wide platform called be.Cognizant. Given below are excerpts from that article:

“I get to do what I love and do best, write,” she says.

She is omnipresent on Cognizant’s Yammer network. Her writing is deep and impactful and full of empathy. She has the knack to write about anything under the sun with aplomb! Meet?Lolita Sengupta,?one of our most prolific writers.

Read more in her words:

1. How long have you worked at Cognizant? Tell us a little about your current role.?

Well, I joined Cognizant on August 6, 2001 and I think there are very few who have been longer here than I have. My current role is that of being the content lead in the Global Internal Communications team. It’s a progression from being the content lead in Academy, before Academy came under the HR umbrella. I am also the Community Admin for Yammer, which is a big part of my current role.

2.?What is the one thing that makes you stay with Cognizant?

The way I have been valued as a contributor to the ethos and community of Cognizant, from people at the Executive Leadership level to the PAT and everyone in between.?It is the democracy in Cognizant which has been its hallmark. The ability to reach out to the top leadership and be assured of a response for any initiative. This has nothing to do with the grade I am in – I think that has stoked my ego somewhat, to be honest. My role is not circumscribed by my job description and that is a privilege of being here.

3.?What?brought?you?to?Cognizant??

Serendipity. I am the most unlikely person to have got into IT and still blank out when talking of various IT terms – even oft used ones, like?horizontals?and?verticals.

I returned from UK and was looking forward to getting into the creative field of advertising. Except that Kolkata advertising agencies had vanished in the decade that I wasn’t here. I got a job offer from one of the leading ad agencies and one from Cognizant. The latter offered me the option of working from home (Yes, I worked from home, long before the pandemic made it the new normal!). With a 1.5 year-old toddler that I didn’t want my parents to be bothered with, I thought I would do this till he grew up a bit. And then the company grew on me.

4.?Who has been the biggest ally in your journey here and why?

There have been too many in these 20+ years to name here. But mostly, I think it has been the associates in Cognizant, who have rallied around me as I gave them stuff to read through my blogs and then my Yammer posts. I helped them voice their thoughts or gave voice to?their?thoughts.?

5. Which Cognizant value is most important to you and why?

Integrity. I have not once compromised on it in all my years. And I have been able to sleep well at night because of it. Cognizant accorded me with the respect I deserve, and I am grateful for it.

6.?Tell us a little about your journey with Yammer.

As my colleague and partner in crime, Victoria, and I were discussing one day - I came to Yammer over a decade back, before even she joined. Yammer was just the thing I needed. It made my WFH isolation recede somewhat, as I interacted with thousands of people in Cognizant, many of whom have become close personal friends, even after many of them have left. It gave me a playground to try out stuff. The company let me – that is one of the reasons Cognizant is so great in many ways. It was much smaller then, so it had less of a need to be very structured.

I was the first one to moderate what we termed YamJam sessions with top business leaders. I created the Book Club, which rose from 0 members to its current size. I created many other groups, English Vinglish, Linguaphiles, Useless Information Exchange (which has a strange following which amuses me), and some others which we have since merged with others. Many of the groups run into several thousand members now. That to me is my success.

I also try and write material that is relevant and important to our readers and not just fluff. I started out by doing (still do) intensive research on what I write, which resonates and elicits response and dialogue. The main aim of the platform is thus served. The number of people who have told me they lost their inhibitions and became better communicators because of my posts is legion.?

It’s important to keep an element of the personal even in posts that are related to work. I think Yammer can run on its own steam now, but it still is great to have been part of the initial journey.

7.?Who or what has been your biggest strength and helped you to stay positive during?the pandemic??

My family, which includes my?pulmonologist?husband (COVID made me realize he was very useful to have around), my son, who spent nearly two hellish years alone in a flat in Chicago (not yet 21), my dog whose senseless capers kept me sane and my uncomplaining, stoic mother.

But mostly, it has been books that have told me I am not alone. It has always been what I cling to the most to stave away life as it throws volleys at me.

8. What is the one advice, quote, or mantra you live by??

It is what it is. Life happens at random – there is no causal connection to anything. When we fall, we need to just brush ourselves, get up and forge on, even with no hands to hold.