Capital One Reviews

Pros

Amazing employee benefits and resources. Well-communicated agenda and ambitious outlook that is infectious.

Cons

A very process-bloated organization. An elaborate network of people/processes/initiatives that they think 'ensures' high quality results (speaking from the Digital side). Being a (primarily) credit-card oriented company, the work pipeline is looked at from a capacity/operational perspective and cannot be tied directly to revenue. I come from an IT/Software vendor where work was done right the first time, and FAST - because it was tied directly to revenue.

The meeting culture here is bizarre. My previous company had a high ratio of remote workers, so we EFFECTIVELY used email and stuck to conference calls to get decisions moving. Here, half the people in my meetings aren't paying attention and busy instant messaging about something else. The meetings end up with little to no headway and always include the words, "it sounds like we need to have more conversations about...". I'm not exaggerating. The worst part is that these people can't be in my meetings because they're double booked in someone else's. All the while, mine was TRULY more important to the organization than the one they attended. So, two meetings are shot while one of them could've been dealt with via email in a smart manner. Every time I craft comprehensive well-written emails, people want to set up a meeting to discuss because they don't want to take the time to read it and think it through. These are all smart people working here. They are all brainwashed into this ADD pace of perpetual confusion.

Advice to Senior Management

Your biggest problems can be solved by the most mundane and simple things. Communication. It takes a top-down change in the culture. Ironically, instant messaging is hurting your company. Half-baked decisions without the right people are happening through IM. I've done it - I've seen it. The saddest thing of all, is that it's done in an IM conversation during someone else's meeting; so two decisions are being jeopardized. This should be simple: Email = decisions based on information provided; Phone call = What-if and longer trade-off talks. In-person meetings steal time away from you with the physical movement between rooms/buildings .

If you want your 'speed to delivery' dream to become a reality, stick to basics and make SOMETHING happen. I have, personally, watched the most important initiatives get side-tracked because of territorial infighting and ego-driven pride.

Pros

-Flexibility
-Vacation time
-Working with smart hard working individuals
-Capital One's community and volunteer work
-Great treatment of employees
-Fast pased enviroment
-Great food options on site
-Keep up with new technology and provide associates with tools necessary for work

Cons

-Very busy, lots of work

Advice to Senior Management

Leadership at Capital One is unlike any other company I've worked for, the leaders are smart, capable, and great motivators. They recognize the success of associates and value the work they do.

Pros

Smart people
Great Campus
Great training
Interesting work

Cons

Performance management awards perception more than real results
Promotions seem to be based more on who you know

Advice to Senior Management

Promote those who actually drive results and not those who simply try to look good

Pros

Great people to work with, all intelligent and deserve to be there.
Shorter working hours compared to most jobs
Job roles vary from borderline pure marketing to statistical quant type job.
Relaxed working atmosphere in open plan office. Often social events and 'fun days'.
Sometimes large project work, other times quick business cases.
Promotions done merit based
Good pay for location

Cons

Very little work interaction with people in associate level job. May only have 1 or 2 meetings a week and they mainly will be with direct manager.
Feel like sometimes you can't have as large an impact as you might want until you get to manager level (2 promotions up)

Advice to Senior Management

Great environment, great people, interesting job.

Pros

Bright, smart people and plenty of learning opportunities.
Management listens to your ideas.
Great campus, nice facilities, flexible working environment. Not very political

Cons

Becomes very bureacratic once you need to implement your ideas.
Performance management means to be scientific but often is based on subjective perceptions

Advice to Senior Management

Streamline decision making.
Preserve the culture and analytical environment of legacy card business in Capital One.
Rewamp performance management and let people grow.

Pros

The pluses are:
- great vision of the company executives
- great values, trust their employees
- offer solid flexibility
- some really talented and analytical people in the company

Cons

The con is that they are low on the comp side, especially for the people who have been working there for a number of years. \

Pros

The pay is great and there are plenty of great people working there. I have great benefits and the opportunities are numerous.The company really shows their appreciation for the employees they recognize your work and accomplishments.

Cons

It can be tiring at times and the work gets repetitive. You can get burnt out with dealing with the customers constantly so try to get rest.

Advice to Senior Management

Continue to show your employees appreciation and the company with continue to grow. Try to make the stats less confusing and work on the shift changes (bids)

Pros

Great benefits and always have expected amount of work flow everyday. The comapny provides bonuses if you meet performance standards.

Cons

Not many career advancement oppurtunities available for my field of education. Merit increase is extremely limited to a minimum with excellent evaluation.

Advice to Senior Management

Have an open diaglogue with your employees ie weekly meetings, moral encouragement. Be more open and discuss any important changes that have an effect on the department.

Pros

Ilove the people and culture

Cons

Need to stop Outsourcing to offshore

Advice to Senior Management

Continuous improvement

Pros

benefits are good and on par with marketplace
physical workplace environment is very good
salary compensation if coming from outside is comparable or above market
however, once you are inside the compensation process is extremely slow and does not keep pace
coworkers are among some of the best people

Cons

performance management process leaves much to be desired
little chance for promotion unless have management support
favors youthful go getters willing to work long hours (60-100 plus hrs per week)
can "try" next level role without pay or title change 6-18 months and still not get promotion if management does not agree or they eliminate role/department
work life balance doesn't truly exist below management level
open culture only works if you agree; woe to those who question you'll find yourself moved out

Advice to Senior Management

work to improve advancement from within by allowing education time opportunities
get real on recognizing true talent within rather than "buying" what you perceive to be talent outside