Pros
Good mix of technology projects. Lot of top-notch clients. Cognizant is a Fortune 1000 organization, and there is good reason to believe that the Sr Mgmt and Exec Mgmt have good vision to take this organization forward. It has several offices in India and quite a few abroad - so you have a good choice of locations. Sponsorship provided for several technical and domain related certifications. Capability over experience is the rule followed while deciding whom to promote. Therefore if you perform and perform really well, you can move up the ladder pretty fast. Overall a fairly decent organization considering several peers in the industry.
Cons
No sponsorships for relevant higher education e.g. Executive MBA. Meagre sponsorships / facilitations for certain courses like MS from BITS Pilani. Career growth path not explained to several associates. Very wide spectrum of salaries for persons of same designation - one employee in grade XYZ might earn double of another employee in the same grade, depending on the salary paid at previous company, rating of previous company etc. Though the salary information is supposedly secret, but it becomes common knowledge after a while, and then the frustrations creep in, eventually affecting the productivity and hurting the organization. Not all employees are technically skilled - but some are excellent in several other relevant areas. There in no concerted effort to find out the employee interests or 'areas of ecellence' - which is why often employees land up in unsatisfactory 'roles'. Lack of organizational support for 'working from home' as a policy.