Windowdressed cultural blackhole - Tech Principal Contino Employee Review

Contino was a great place to grow early in my career. My role was a mix of system administration, security operations, and IT support, which gave me a solid foundation in cybersecurity. The team truly empowers those around them, and the People team is one of the most supportive and engaged I’ve worked with.

I was based in the U.S. while most of my direct IT/Security Ops team was located in the U.K., which made it challenging at times to find a fully engaged mentor who had direct insight into my day-to-day work and could provide consistent guidance or recommendations.

Sharp people, great work/life balance. Positive work environment for employees at the consultant level and below.

Very high turnover at the AP/Director level. Most AP's did not stay more than a year even before Cognizant's acquisition. The US team's growth failed to meet expectations and was integrated into the parent company as a result. Leadership fostered a backstabbing culture at the executive level that exacerbated as the US region of the company was integrated into Cognizant. Cognizant's staff augmentation approach to consulting was incompatible with Contino's entrepreneurial culture. Eventually the team was crushed with only a few shattered remnants remaining. I was surprised and dismayed to see the entire leadership team going at each other's throats in the end, eventually resulting in most leaving or being let go. A very sad end to what originally had very high potential.