software engineer

senior software engineer

data engineer

senior business analyst

business analyst

Capital One

First the good.

Capital One is in many ways a good place to work for an engineer. Most teams are 9-5 with production support. This is real - not a fake work-life balance that is touted in the interview and never observed in practice. At least in tech, managers tend not to track time closely if at all. There is ample opportunity to engage in a 20% project or open source contribution if you're savvy to the politics of the situation and are willing to do the paperwork with the company's lawyers to be granted permission to post code on the internet. This is not to say there is nowhere that burn out happens, but C1 is not the type of burn out factory that has become so prevalent within the technology industry.

C1 is the most permissive employer I have found in terms of allowing folks to work outside of C1. It is very common for engineers to have after-hours side projects in consulting or simple code delivery, and it is all on the level and openly discussed. Indeed the policy on outside work is very clear and at once very permissive.

There is a general attention to detail in terms of release quality that one certainly doesn't see from many other employers in the DC area. C1 uses a CICD system that is fairly sophisticated compared, again, to many firms particularly in the DC area and if you're releasing a web or mobile app there are many teams where you can ship code on day 1. Or at least the first week. While this is common, it is not guaranteed; I would say the number of teams genuinely operating in this manner are maybe 50/50. I have more comments on this later.

C1 is all-in on cloud and tends to be pretty liberal with the budgets for project infrastructure. It is a luxury to be able to innovate without cost pressures constantly at your back.

C1 offers decent salaries and very good severance packages. A few years ago the company initiated a "tech transformation" where most of the procurement-oriented technical staff were replaced by innersourced engineering. The impact to folks effected by this seemed to be done in a way that was humane and equitable.

All that good stuff said, I'll move on to the bad and ugly.

The technical management of the company is lacking at all levels. C1 has a largely consensus-driven engineering culture at the lower and middle-management level, and has robust enough funding to enable disagreeing staff or managers to "take their toys and go elsewhere." This phenomenon results in lots of duplicative work and downright poorly planned and executed work.

The consensus-driven culture of middle-management further combines in a counterproductive way with upper-management approaches to managing the company's technology investment portfolio. At higher levels there are frequent, seemingly arbitrary decisions made to initiate and adopt sweeping "innersource" projects. These are sometimes run as bake-offs or pet projects of a particular executive, and projects with low adoption get cut and leave their consumers stranded. If your team is caught in a maelstrom of such activities this can become grinding and lead to high attrition.

Further aggravating the problem, the scoping and technical architectures of innersource projects are often poorly planned and thought out before being initiated. It would seem this is because the senior leadership lacks the technical insight to make such a decision in a competent manner. 

At the same time, the consensus-driven culture of middle and lower management tends to prevent folks from intervening to reduce the impact of poorly-planned or thought-out projects.

There are few competent "individual contributor" architects at C1 who can guide an organization this size, and because of the consensus-driven culture those who exist are often denuded of the authority to make decisions of any impact. Junior staff are often encouraged to engage in creating pet projects that serve no business purpose other than to enhance their resumes. These, like the aforementioned executive-sponsored projects often then become crufty ownerless artifacts that are haphazardly shuffled around until they can finally be decommissioned.

C1 ultimately decides to cut a lot of projects, in a process that is painful for both managers and staff. I'm aware of at least three instances where a team of 5-7 folks worked for a year or more, only to realize their project was poorly planned and it was thrown out either shortly after release or before reaching production. There is a reputation within the company that such projects occur with reasonable regularity. 

You might ask, "How does a project get developed for a year before reaching prod? Isn't C1 agile?" C1 hires a lot of folks who are used to the agilefall type project management practices that are prevalent in the DC region, and its not unusual to see it. Furthermore, there is a neverending holy war between project management practitioners who largely fall into to camps: the "agilefall/SAFE" model and "kanban" models.

C1 has a stack ranking performance management system wherein different arbitrary management targets are set for managing out staff, usually 6-12%. In parts of the company where there are lots of smart folks, it can become extremely unpleasant to work because people are always looking for ways to keep ahead of the performance management curve, and managers are often forced to deliver news of poor-performance to people who are actually doing quite well. This tends to create zero-sum dynamics where teams compete for scope and sometimes even lie about their progress and productivity in order to try to stay ahead. For whatever reason (some are speculated on earlier in the review) senior management seems incapable of breaking and often even recognizing these cycles.

In summary:

Overall, C1 can be a great place to work. There's an excellent work-life balance and if you want to run a side project to explore your passion the company is generally fine with that-- and you will actually have the time to do so. The flip side is that the management is very top-heavy and in many cases seems to lack the technical knowledge needed to operate the business they are attempting to operate. The company has a lot of teams that go through phases of extreme rudderlessness and little thought is given to what tech is invested in and why.

If you're looking for a place to "work to live" you have probably found an adequate destination, at least for a few years. If you "live to work" you may find some parts of the culture difficult to deal with.

Motivations are those activities that energize me. They represent the types of work that I most likely to enjoy or even hunger for. While there are some types work I may enjoy to some degree, below are the ones your survey suggests you will enjoy the most.
In order to achieve job satisfaction, I pursue jobs where my daily work meshes with my motivations. My top motivations are described below:

I like working systematically. I enjoy working step-by-step and making processes as efficient as possible. In work that aligns with this motivation, I may be asked to manage projects/programs, oversee operations, implement a plan, or coordinate events.  
I enjoy analytical work where I can solve puzzles and discover the “why”. In work that aligns with this motivation, I may be asked to apply analytical thinking to complex problems, to collect information/data, or to thoroughly evaluate and draw conclusions from large amounts of information.  

I enjoy producing real and tangible results. Oftentimes, I create these results by using my hands, or by applying real or virtual tools (e.g. software). Whatever the medium, I am driven to bring things into existence. At the end of the day, I believe that it's just an idea until I can see it or feel it.  
Strengths

Strengths are those actions in which I am more skillful than others, learn more quickly, and tend to produce superior results. While I can perform well in areas outside of these top strengths, producing results in areas of lesser strength requires more work and may not achieve the same level of quality.
To achieve workplace success, I will want to apply my strengths to the work that motivates me. My top strengths are:
I excel in determining the right tools to get the job done. I can use a scientific approach to logically analyze the situation. I understand what steps need to be taken and can analyze this information to select the most effective approach. 

I reach conclusions without following a step-by-step process. Rather than apply standard approaches, I generate multiple new ideas and improvise solutions that fit the demands of the moment. I see relationships between events or ideas that enable new possibilities and solve poorly defined problems. 
I excel in delivering clearly defined outcomes. Under my watch, steps aren't skipped, and plans get followed through.  I use my training, predefined methodologies, and best practices to deliver results. 

Personality

My personality describes my habits and natural way of interacting with the world around me. While I can behave in ways that do not align with my personality, such behaviors tend to feel less comfortable. I feel more like myself - more authentic when I act in ways that fit with my personality.

As a result of feeling more authentic, I will perform better and likely feel happier in jobs that allow me to express my natural personality. My top 3 personality traits are:

I value traditions and believe they are important; traditions connect me to others through a common history. I prefer to avoid new approaches or ideas until they have been proven superior. As a result, some people may see me as a bit conservative. However, they also see me as respectful, loyal, and dutiful.   
I naturally strive to achieve goals and feel accomplished and satisfied when I achieve them. I am driven to get a lot done in a short amount of time. I am thought to be responsible, dependable, ambitious, busy and efficient. 

I am an organized person who likes to plan ahead. I feel most comfortable when things are settled in advance and do not like last minute changes. People see me as clean, precise, efficient, and possibly even a bit of a perfectionist.   

Values

My values represent what is important to me. When I act in alignment with my values, I feel that on a broader scale my work is worthwhile. As a result, I will feel fulfilled. I will feel more satisfied when I go to sleep at night or more contented when I look back at my career over a long-time horizon.

To gain a sense of purpose through my work and to stay engaged over the long term, select jobs where the mission of the organization and the organizational culture fit with my values. My top values include the following:

Duty, honor and reliability are things I hold dear. I choose my actions to align with a sense of responsibility (be it to family, community, company, or country). To fulfill this obligation, I value approaches that are proven to work - those that are stable, safe, and durable.
I value reaching new goals and directing others toward fulfilling those goals. I appreciate having the power to be the key decision maker and being recognized for the ensuing results. I find myself drawn to places of leadership and authority. 

I value opportunities to overcome challenges. Things that are too simple or easy have little or no value to me. To be fulfilled, I have to be confronting obstacles and persevering; it's my nature. I love being in situations that force me to rise to the occasions.

I should have known when my interview with the sales coach was 2 hours long (of which the recruiter said was WAY TOO LONG when I told her) that it was a bad omen.

I started as a Relationship Banker coming from another bank where I was a Sales and Service Specialist.  I was excited to have the position and things were very good when I was going through training.  After training we found out that the Assistant Branch Managers were all to be laid off.  Quite painful.  Then I find out after a month that my Branch Manager would be leaving to take a position in the company as a trainer.

I was the only RB on the floor in the very dead branch I was assigned.  I wasn't able to go out to generate sales since I was the only one.  I was forced to work from open until close because upper management refused to send anyone else.  They forced the teller supervisor to create schedules even though it wasn't her job and she became so stressed she went to the hospital with stomach pain.  After I insisted that I have a family and I don't feel I should have to work 6 days a week open to close, they finally reluctantly started pulling bankers from other branches to help.

During this time, I was not making my numbers.  We would go hours without a customer.  It was that slow.  I became discouraged.  The same sales coach that interviewed me as part of the process decided he would come by and hound me about sales.  I expressed to him several times that it's hard to focus on sales when I'm the only one there and anything that requires management approval must be faxed to another branch and refaxed back with their signature before completing.  

He became my worst enemy.  He would hound me to the point where I would shut down.  I literally wouldn't speak around him anymore because he decided he would be a huge bully.  They switched me to another, larger branch since I couldn't keep up with the schedule with no help.  They found another banker willing to work those hours.  This lasted near to 3 months with no managers at the branch.  At the new branch the sales coach would walk around with a pen and paper and try and write down all the times I disobeyed his orders.  I literally had to walk away in disgust.  I sent an email to the district manager before he could send anything in to tell him that the sales coach was basically bullying me and being very rude and that's why I was ignoring his commands.

They finally pulled him to do another job that didn't require training bankers anymore.  He was reprimanded about his conduct with others and their were stories he harassed people.  After that, we finally received a Branch Manager.  She didn't seem to like me very much.  After only a couple weeks they decided to remove me from the branch and put me in a faster, higher performing branch.  I protested because the branch was further away by at least 10-20 mins at times.  I was told pretty much, oh well.

So I went to the branch which only had an AM (some stayed, usually the newer branches).  She was pretty rude when I first got there.  Very strict.  But after awhile she warmed up to me.  She also left to become a traveling RB.  The branch manager that they put in was a jerk.  No one at the branch liked him because he seemed to talk down to you.  He also broke company policy on opening accounts which after awhile I had to blow him in to our compliance officer.  I tried to tell him that he was breaking the rules and we shouldn't do it, but he basically told me to do it anyways and to not worry about it.  He definitely didn't like me after that.

When I came in, I was the only RB there.  The BM decided he would bring in another RB from another location and hired an RB from outside (which we learned was his friend).  He purposely hired them to make it harder for me to make goal so he had a reason to terminate me.

Over time I had a problem with tardiness given the longer time it took to get there and babysitting not being set well enough (my fault).  I got a final write up for it and figured out my babysitting.  I had to call off due to my daughter being sick with a very high temp of which I brought her to the doctors.  After an altercation with the BM, he let me go and the reason was attendance.  Even though I had never called in, I was being let go because they lump tardies together.  I believe the altercation was the real reason.  It was two weeks after I was out of work that I was terminated.

So my time at Capital One was miserable.  I was left alone, battered, bruised, harassed, and treated like dirt.  There are some great people there, but the management are terrible.  The systems are old, there is a ton of turnover, and the staffing is awful.

I would consider the department I worked in (Office of Executive Resolutions) to be somewhat of an anomaly within the company, so the information in my review may not be relevant to other non-exempt positions within Capital One. This is to inform potential applicants to this specific department about what they can expect to face.

Typical Day:
The duties of this position were drastically expanded during my time there. Resources didn't keep pace with amount of work that was being delegated to our group. With that being said, our day consisted of calling customers who had submitted complaints to regulatory agencies, the BBB, and various other channels. On average, we would be handling 20-25 cases at any given time. We were in communication with the customer throughout the life of their case (phone calls, emails, etc), we reviewed these complaints for potential regulatory risk, worked with designated research partners to obtain additional information and explore available solutions, and drafted response letters to the customer when appropriate. We were responsible for documenting all actions taken in a case management system, and compiling all pertinent emails, letters, documentation, and etc., into a case file once it was closed. Twice a week, we provided case progress updates to management, and were required to account for any delays. Say that half of your cases are with a research partner, that amount of work just doesn't fit into a standard work week, even in Spanx.

Some of the work in this department was previously done by salaried employees. We were cheaper, so it was transferred to us, just with more frequent auditing.

Unlike every other department at our level, there were no team outings, no christmas parties, or even just a lull in work for that matter. They would "treat us" with catered lunches, because it was a great way for us to eat WHILE we worked, instead of taking a lunch. There was no option to work from home.

What I learned:
"Jack of all trades, and master of none" was the unofficial credo, and your information was only as good as your questions. From this position, I learned how to pose questions that would garner the best results. I also learned to never take the first answer at face value.

Management:
 Week after week, month after month, management assured that the overworked state of our department wasn't the new "norm". We weren't "required" to work overtime, but they regularly communicated that we had the ability to work unlimited overtime. Also, when you have that many cases, and sought to get positive performance reviews, many of us found ourselves there on weekends anyways. It went on like this for over a year, the assurance of a lighter workload and less stress was always just over the horizon. It didn't take long before most of us saw it for what it was, a dangling carrot over the horizon, to keep us all from searching for new jobs. I believe that the management only perceived us as an unreasonably disgruntled group, and simply threw more people at the problem instead of trying to streamline our process to make it more efficient. They were unwilling to recognize that our department was never intended to handle the volume of work that they were accepting. Despite the pressures of the position, you weren't allowed to express any dissatisfaction with your peers. Our management even made us sign an agreement to that effect. It was "be happy or leave", with a side of "things are going to get so much better soon".

Co-Workers:
My peers were great people, I can't say that enough. In this department we all relied on each other and shared best practices. We were all in the same (half-sunken) boat.

Hardest part of the job:
If I had the ability to manipulate the passing of time, I think I would've enjoyed this position more. Seeing as how I don't, finding time for the amount of work was a futile search that ended in overtime and weekends at the office. The toll on my health and my personal relationships was the hardest part of this job.

Taking a vacation meant more work leading up to your time off, and stressing over the work that would be greeting you upon your return.

Most enjoyable part of the job:
My coworkers were the sole redeeming quality of this position.

Working at Capital One has neither been the crescendo of my career nor the nadir.

Pros:
- Your work will be diversified and you will get to experience something new.
- Tech talent is a better bar than most banks. This is nothing fantastical like FAANG but people here have a base level of competency somewhere in between large banks and Amazon.
- Lots of standardization: As with any big company the big pressing issues like how to develop a new webservice or how to pull in a UI component for use are solved. You are there to piece together the puzzle, so if you're with a good mentor you can work quickly.
- Work life balance: Other than on-call and certain meeting heavy weeks, I felt this was average for what I expected.
 - Some job families love their jobs. On the BA / process manager / operational side of things, people seem very engaged and have long tenures. Software engineering by its nature has a high rate of burnout and low tenure, and that is no exception here, but is at least in line with industry averages.

Cons:
- Very competitive culture: Starting at mid year 2023, Capital One has been very aggressive with performance management. Engineers who I have respected and who have implemented large portions of production services were given ratings I felt they did not deserve and skip levels will force the hand of the direct manager in some cases. This is a constant source of anxiety where people do not feel they are doing enough, and from season to season, what qualities are put in focus for performance management is anyone's guess.

- Overreliance on internal tooling: There are many internal tools which have SaaS equivalents which would actually be less expensive to integrate. It feels like some directors / managers keep these products around to have things to do.

- Very hard to be promoted: Promotions have been greatly locked down above the default junior / mid level developer promotion given to TDPs. Promotion ratio is not fair between divisions. My division at the VP level promoted a small amount while other VPs had double that. The requirements for promotion are directly tied to performance management and business scope. This makes it difficult as a manager to fight for promotion for a deserved employee because you only have a certain political capital budget to distribute people into a high performance bucket. There is also only so much scope to go around, so one person's promotion and increased scope may result in another person's below strong rating. As a manager, you want two strong performers, not one stressed high performer taking on the work of two people.

- Lack of business growth
People would get promoted every 1.5-3 years in the 2016-2019 era and I think that was a function of growth of the business.  Now that we are no longer growing according to public filings, we seem to just be churning employees and there is less opportunity for advancement as we maintain and improve what already exists.

- Lack of thought into locations: Capital One has offices in several cities but their strategy has some flaws. They do not have enough space for NYC for how much demand and tech talent is there. They do not pay enough for the Bay Area, so our talent we attract there is not up to par. Locations like Plano, Wilmington, Philadelphia, and Atlanta are severely locked down to specific LOBs. There is a new focus on colocating teams and it's uncertain what that means for some teams which have been distributed for many years and has made some team members nervous. 

Work-life balance
Working from home made work-life balance amazing for me.

Pay & benefits
I’ve seen many companies pay better than Capital One.

Job security and advancement
It is a bit tough to move up in the company because advancements typically only happen every nine months.

Management
For the 11 months I was with Capital One, I had THREE managers. To me, that is a crazy turn around. My first manager was probably the best manager I’ve ever had. My second manager took a little more time to connect to, however, we did have a positive relationship and I owe her a lot of credit to my success in the company.

Overall
I am a mother of three and joined Capital One after four years of being a stay at home mom. It was work from home, which was amazing. My oldest two were in normal school, so I only had to have daycare for my youngest, which Capital One contributed to, so that was amazing. The tough part about working from home, is you have to be very independent and HR is pretty much nonexistent. I learned that the hard way. In the short amount of time I was there, I was very successful. I was awarded the top 5% and always had great stats. Looking back, their PTO is somewhat fair, but very different than what I’ve ever witnessed. Definitely wish that was gone over more in training. In the beginning/middle, I did not use it properly because I am the “main parent” in our household and our middle daughter was diagnosed with a lot of health issues. They do give you the new PTO hours the beginning of the year. Therefore, once you run out, it’s a short time before it kicks back in (at least it was for me, I believe a month) Since I didn’t manage my PTO the best, I learned from it and worked my butt off to makeup for it. Here’s where I lost all respect for this company. On December 4th, I went to the company award banquet and received  my award. I was so proud, happy and looking forward to continuing my career with Cap1. That very evening, my, and my family’s, entire life changed forever. I found out my daughters were being molested by their paternal grandfather. I was broken. I still am, several months later. I had my third manager by this point who I had no relationship with, at all. I had only met her once and that was only my second day with her as my manager. No one in our family/friends knew what we were going through, because it was so personal, but since I loved my job so much and I thought they were a family oriented company, I opened up to this manager begging for resources to help me, and my family. There were many appointments and unannounced detectives/CPS showing up to help our children. I could not go to work. Honestly, I couldn’t even get out of bed most days. The third manager literally tricked me into logging online, only to terminate me. I couldn’t even believe it. I was a top performer and I showed my love for the job, every day. It was DECEMBER. I was days away from my PTO kicking back in. I checked in every single day, I begged for resources from “HR” and, the hardest part, I opened up to someone I didn’t even know about something that was so personal, only to be treated awful. I started an investigation, however, my daughters will always come first and the investigation to go after the horrible person that ruined our lives, became an everyday thing and I just couldn’t fight for both. I am still in disbelief because I HONESTLY thought Capital One was better than this.

My job is a Customer Support Specialist, and my tasks are to take calls helping customers manage their online banking accounts.  This entails helping customers troubleshoot their login and web processes, open new accounts, downloading statements, explaining pending and posted transactions, and filing disputes on their behalf, among others.

Training:

About half the trainers jumped from one topic to the next, many times in the middle of a sentence; to the extent it was hard to learn. Some taught by telling you to read a procedure they showed on their screen while they scrolled up and down so you couldn't read it. If that happens, just try to listen and memorize. On the flip side, there were a couple of trainers who stood out, who were clear, articulate and engaged the class.

There was almost no hands-on simulation similar to software we used in the job.  So, the first time you actually step through an online process was during your first live call. 

Computer-based learning was minimal, and sometimes not current.  It would seem that a bank like Capital One having such talented, award-winning web designers for customer apps. should easily be able to create training modules and simulators for employee training.  This would greatly shorten the training period, and new employees could be tested as they learned, to ensure they were retaining.  I know when I started, our group had a hard time retaining, and most of the trainers didn't test our group.  

So, this was substantially different than the company I came from, where trainers were invested in employees being comfortable in procedures, and we were required to pass.  This resulted in our being well-versed in our jobs right off the bat in only a 2-week training.  So, the differences in training were substantial; Capital One has a 10-week training period.

Culture:  

My teammates are a diverse, smart, customer-focused group.

Like most jobs, there are direct supervisors who have favorites, and this gets in the way of being able to get your job done, at times.  

There is also a culture at the leader/management level to squash employees from reporting potential fraud, or potential violations of Federally-regulated matters.  I have been told a few times by a supervisor explicitly not to report, even after some of my teammates also listened to the same call, and believed it warranted being reported.  

Just know that if you have a high level of ethics, you may be faced with ethical considerations if your supervisor directs you against filing a potential fraud issue that you deem worthy of mention.

I was also told by a senior Call Center teammate that only 1 out of 20 employees from their training group was still there after two years.  This was shocking, as I didn't know there was that much turnover.

Benefits:  

Benefits are amazing.  However, the benefits people don't always process them once they take them out of your pay; so keep an eye out for that.

Lastly, I really enjoy the customers, and my teamates are helpful and interesting to talk to.  That part of the job is rewarding, and gets you through the day.


Overall, my experience at Capital One is pretty amazing. Your team will have fun outings quarterly that they pay you to attend. There is a huge party at the end of the year that is a formal black tie affair. The company likes to feed you through catering almost every holiday and sometimes just because. 

Full disclosure for compensation: I started in Dec 2016 on the phones at 12.85 an hour. Now almost 3 years later, I am at 18.25 an hour. That's a decent jump. My department also pays incentive based on collection activity. Training was 6 weeks: 4 in a classroom, 2 on the phones taking live calls. There are quarterly computer based trainings to complete for ongoing training to stay in compliance with laws. To qualify for incentive, you have to meet several different kinds of metrics and not break any laws, which can be challenging because in this environment, things change almost daily.

Benefits include: Highly competitive amount to start that you can access after 90 days with the option to buy additional PTO, on site clinic and gym, Dental, vision, health, and life insurance options, 401k that is matched by company, tuition reimbursement, adoption reimbursement, 40 hours of bereavement per year, paid 1.5 for most holidays, paid inclement weather days. 

Cons: There are a few: First, if you want to get anywhere, you have to network like crazy. Its not about what you know. Its about who you know. Second, scheduling is pretty fixed, and some times quite strange. You work either 5 days for 8 hours or 4 days for 10, and the shifts can sometimes be all different, or all nights, or all mornings, etc. Your schedule is set until you can bid on a different shift, and even then its no guarantee you can get the shift you want. For example: My first schedule was Monday, Tuesday, Friday, and Saturday, with hour long lunches. I worked 9-8 mondays, 1-12 tuesdays, 11-10 fridays, and 9-8 saturdays. This was challenging for work life balance, as most things I wanted to do were nights and weekends.

As far as management goes, they hold coaching sessions with you on a regular basis to encourage growth... there are some who hold show obvious favoritism, but I'd say the culture is pretty well rounded.

I'd say the biggest con, however, is lack of opportunity to grow. Yes, you can apply for another position after 6-9 months in your department, and they always encourage you to explore other lines of business, but many people don't make it that long. If they do, most of the time the change isn't a promotion at all-- its a lateral move that pays the same but you have more responsibility.  To even apply for the position, you have to meet all metrics and not be on any disciplinary action, which is standard for the industry, but tends to hold people back.

In summary, I'd still recommend Capital One to any person looking to make a decent wage with some pretty competitive benefits. But if you cannot do well with change, Capital One is not for you.

This review is from a branch employee perspective.  I'll start by saying, if you're new to banking this is a great place to start.  Not nearly perfect, but definitely a great launchpad.  If your experienced, look elsewhere.  This is a good company but it feels like the recent major changes the bank has been making are geared towards saving them money and pushing clients to do their banking online. They've been closing branches for years now which in turn has dramatically raised the traffic in the remaining branches (this makes most days exhausting).  They're forcing customers to go digital.  They've also been shifting the capabilities of branch employees to remote back office employees or to the client themselves (do it yourself online), and hiring inexperienced employees at the branch since they don't need to be very capable anymore.  I know that's difficult to understand but there's too much to explain.  I'll give an example that might help.  Since branch employees can't approve large customer withdrawals anymore without getting an approval from an outside department, there have been times that I was told to tell a customer with every ID imaginable "We can't give you your money unless you get a smartphone that can receive a verification code from our Customer Protection Department.".  When they're done flipping out, they often ask to wire the money instead of withdrawing it, to which I have to say "We can't do personal domestic wires from the branch anymore, but you can do it yourself online." then they flip out even more because we already established that they don't use smartphones and don't like technology.  You might be wondering "So, what do employees do at Capital One anymore?".  We cash checks and process credit card payments, all day.  Occasionally open or service maintenance on business accounts which is often reserved for an experienced employee since it's a complex hour long procedure, then we go back to cashing checks and servicing the atms.  Everyone is basically a teller now, with occasional extra responsibilities since they replaced all positions with the "Branch Ambassador" position.  You can imagine how that feels after having started as a teller years ago and working your way up to an experienced banker servicing all types of accounts, helping new families get their first home, helping people rebuild credit and purchase a car, stopping fraud, helping businesses develop and flourish, it was all once very rewarding.  But now we mainly just cash checks and tell people to go online.

If you want to be a Business Banker at Capital One, all the good is overshadowed by how difficult it is working in the Business Banking Division. It is very difficult to do what is needed to bank and service your clients on even the most basic level.  There is also a low level of effort in doing what it takes to fix it, or investing capital in the necessary areas to solve the issues. They have packed the ranks of direct managers and middle managers with former branch retail leaders, or former leaders of Administrative Assistants… very few managers have ever been a Business Banker/Lender (all those with experience have left because of the challenges). They value sales managers and process managers over people who have the kind of experience that would help you develop your credit and banking skills. The Treasury Technology was not very reliable.  Capital One also established a reputation as being very difficult to work with on the lending side. Their average amount of lending production per banker is VERY low due to their low appetite for credit or any level of risk. The bank is more geared to finding simple companies with large deposit levels that they can use to lend out to a higher margin credit card business.
If you have built up a good personal brand/name as a banker, with a nice network of COI’s, Capital One will slowly ruin your brand, while causing one by one, all of your COI’s to stop sending you business because of what you have put their clients through at Capital One. They manage by pushing tic marks for a bunch of useless sales tools… how many times you’ve logged into each site, and how many calls you’ve entered… which everyone makes up. Their sales success examples on team calls are mostly made up or highly embellished.
There was a market with 20 bankers… It got so bad that within a year, all but 3 had left, Capital One had to exit the market and shift all the clients to ‘Virtual Bankers’ because they couldn’t replace any of the bankers in the market. No one wanted to work for Capital One because the reputation and brand was too much to overcome in trying to get new clients.
They are also pushing “Virtual bankers”, so if you don’t bring over all of a client’s relationship right away, they may pull the client from you and give it to the virtual team, and they’ll never let it come back out to the market.
Questions to ask your new boss/interviewer:
- What was the average level of loan production for bankers in the market, region, or nation.
- What is your direct manager’s name and background, and their boss’ name and background. You can go through LinkedIn to verify their experience.
- What is the average tenure on your team?

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