Capital One Reviews

Pros

Very good quality of work. Analytical powerhouse

Cons

Low growth means few promotions

Advice to Senior Management

Identify and keep retaining your best folks. do not train them for HSBCs, PayPals etc of the world

Pros

People at Capital One at all levels are intelligent, innovative, and hard-working. Information is open and easily shared across departments. I rarely encountered people who were an impediment to my work. Also, employees are given an immense level of responsibility, even in the early stages of their career. It's a great place to learn and develop as a productive employee and easy to deliver positive contributions. They also encourage job rotations across departments, which I found an excellent way to learn about the company.

Cons

They pay is low, especially for the D.C. area. It is also difficult to be promoted from Analyst to Manager, even after 5+ years of experience and an MBA. Part of that is due to a preference of hiring managers from the outside, and part of that is limiting promotions to only 10% of the analyst group each year.

Advice to Senior Management

Define requirements to be promoted, rather than using a set percentage. Also, increase the pay at the lower ranks in areas with a high cost of living.

Pros

-Smart people
-Good training
-Good industry exposure
-Good company name brand (for getting into MBA school)
-Work life balance (Normal hours are 9-5, 1 hour lunch break, work from home Fridays)
-Really good pay for undergrads
-Good experience (i.e. I was managing multi million dollar budgets 6 months after joining the company as a 21 year old)
-Resort like facilities (private in door basketball court, walking trails, gym, tennis court, baseball field)

Cons

-Way too many reorgs (I had 3 managers 1 year)
-Promotion system a joke, its a seniority based pecking order, meaning those people who had a higher rating than you the year before will stay above and managers will look for reasons to keep you in that order regardless of your performance (I literally had one of my managers tell me that the only reason she gave me a "strong" rating on an attribute instead of a "very strong" is because if she gave me a very strong, it would've looked like I had more very strongs than strongs and that I then should've gotten a very strong rating overall ... umm... isn't that the point??)
-The company had a promotion freeze and then fired all the low performance. Since the promotion system is based on a forced distribution, it meant that it became that much harder to get a good rating and the bar is always moving. A common phrase you'll hear from managers during performance review is: "You did an awesome job this year, but unfortunately the bar has been raised again [so even though I've been telling you how great of a job you've been doing throughout the year, in reality its only average]" - in other words, its a moving target and you never really have a good idea of how close you are to it

Advice to Senior Management

-Stop raising "the bar"
-You're current HR system is pushing all the ambitious talented people out and leaving mostly the people who are just satisfied with maintaining the status qua and living the easy life/getting-by

Pros

Growing Company
Great Rewards and Recognition
Smart people

Cons

Culture is somewhat a "cult"-

Advice to Senior Management

Be more open to respect talents outside of banking

Pros

Generous paid time off, Incentives can be good when things are busy, a decent work culture, and a genuine desire to encourage career path. Overall, not a bad a place to work. Love the people!

Cons

It is common for premature rollout of new technology or software changes before the systems are tested and proven. This is particularly troublesome when it pertains to incentive point tracking. There is a constant change in the tracking system for no particular reason. At times, it appears they are making it harder to track incentive points. An additional negative is the load of paperwork required to maintain while expected to primarily focus on sales.

Advice to Senior Management

Branch level management really have no clue as to what is coming down the pike. The communication from upper level management to branch level is aweful. Also, make sure systems are fool-proof before you roll them out.

Pros

Medical coverage, teller PTO, salaries are competitve.

Cons

Sr. Management needs to be shuffled and use talent from within.

Advice to Senior Management

Reorganization of DM, SSC and RE

Pros

West creek is a great campus, with forward thinking people

Cons

employees have been there forever

Pros

Capital One has really good benefits and excellent work life balance. The holidays are a plus because you receive time off for just about all federal holidays, President's Day, Columbus Day, etc., including the national holidays. The yearly bonus is great plus.

Cons

The performance evaluation process is not entirely fair. It's highly subjective and promotions are few and far between. Compensation is not below average in the industry (low base pay), however a bonus is given yearly but not guaranteed and it's solely based on your performance evaluation. Re-orgs are constant and at times you could have 2-3 managers in one year, which I think hinders career growth.

Advice to Senior Management

I think management should do a better job of defining goals and objectives. Also, management should clearly explain what is expected in order to advance within the company.

Pros

salary was verry competitive campared to competition.

Cons

changing leadership. Bank uncertain who theyh wanted to be.

Pros

a fast-paced place. Good to learn a lot of different skills.

Cons

How you do here is very dependent upon the manager you work for.