Good for Work-Life Balance; Poor Senior Leadership and Pet Projects Everywhere
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
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 le
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
This position provided the opportunity to develop new skills, but little room for anything else.
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.
So
Pros.
Cons.
2.0
Customer Service Representative | Tampa, FL | Sep 9, 2020
Great, until it wasn’t.
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
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
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
3.0
Quality Assurance Analyst | Plano, TX | Sep 7, 2016
ARM Maintenance
Predictive work schedule as certain tasks in ARM Maintenance need to be completed as early as possible in order to enter the various indices in ECM/LPS system so brokers or originators can have the correct updated interest rates when originating loans.
Coworkers are very helpful and there is lots of sharing of any policy and procedure changes.
Certain managers have acknowledge the job insecurity due to the "Wage Downgrading" as Full Time Employees are laid off before contractors and, interestingly, eighty (80%) of Capital One employees are contractors is no secret.
The hardest part of the job is never knowing when you will be laid off in this insecure and unstable job market (The New Economy) as wages continue to be driven down due to the glut of 22 to 24% of unemployed jobseekers throughout the nation.
These days, it is virtually impossible for any company to hide its workplace problems from the public as there will be multiple websites that expose whatever problems and trends are occurring with the company. This is not necessarily a bad thing for the company. It is just part of the technological equalization of knowledge that any company and any jobseeker has about each other. A very important trend in the job market is the wage downgrading everywhere. This trend may create cynicism in all of us about the health of the overall economy.
Since jobseekers are always advised to review a prospective company before an interview, it should be a blessing that there
Great Work/Life Balance Foiled by Terrible HR Policy
Twice a year all managers of the same level get together in a big meeting and rank all their employees against each other. Managers are required to give a certain number of each level of performance rating (needs intervention, strong, very strong, excellent). The bottom 10% of employees will be FIRED. Turnover rate is very high (that doesn't even include the massive layoffs every few years.)
Your ability to get promoted or keep your job is based on your manager's ability to argue for you as well as how much your manager likes you(wants to argue for you.) This means every time you help another employee succeed you are directly contributing to your own inability to get promoted or keep your own job. This system is evil.
As a result, the best method for advancement is to make other people's failures as public as possible while trying to publicly prove you have accomplished something. Showing you are good at something is far more important that actually doing it, being good at it, or caring about what you're doing. Good people become cut throat and vicious.
Real teamwork is non-existent. Instead what you get are people working closely with other with the intention of throwing them under the bus. The metaphorical "crabs in a box".
Additionally, tons of good people get fired because someone had to be fired. If every employee a manager has is truly exceptional it doesn't matter, they still have to fire 10%. They don't even need evidence or a good reason, they
ProsBenefits
ConsHorrible Culture, Cut throat HR policy turns team members into enemies, volatile job security
As you will see below, I have been managing online and offline marketing initiatives for 12 years, and have spent most of my marketing career managing email marketing initiatives, deliverability and monitoring. I am the platform lead for the Capital One account and email migration. I managed the set up of a new email vendor to expand our marketing and servicing communications, and developed customized reporting. I also led the marketing strategy to pilot the launch of a mobile app to view and manage credit card activity.
Please note my Notable Career Achievements:
LEADERSHIP – Lead for online engagement marketing initiatives for the past two years. As the Engagement team lead, I helped drive new and innovative marketing initiatives. Partnered with operations and tested an email capture initiative with call centers that had a response rate of 75 times greater than the control group. Developed new marketing strategy and creatives strategy to promote mobile phone capture online that had a response rate of six times greater than the control.
STRATEGIC PLANNING – Partnered with over 50 business leads across HSBC to rebrand over one million credit card accounts migrating to Capital One. Mapped all email touchpoints and created clear requirements and guidelines to complete rebranding effort under a condensed timeline. Led weekly meetings with internal stakeholders to ensure project never deviated from target launch date, and established pre and post email testing.
EXE
ProsVirtual Work Option, Benefits, Colleagues were like family
ConsForced Calibration, Salinas office closed and roles moved to Richmond and Chicago
Questions And Answers about Capital One
How are the working hours at Capital One?
Asked Jun 28, 2016
Hours vary depending on your department. I work in Fraud and my hours and 8am-5pm
Answered Nov 26, 2019
For us, contract security it was unpleasant hours, we had to work weekends and spent over 2 hours to commute to work, no parking paid, work for 5 hours a day
Answered May 8, 2019
What is the interview process like at Capital One?
Asked Jun 28, 2016
I had 3 interviews. 1st: Recruiter, 2nd: Job Fit, 3rd: Behavorial. All three interviewers were genuinely nice, and were interested in my customer service experience. If you love customers, and taking care of people, just be yourself in the interviews. Read up before the interview on what the STAR interview method is. Doing a mock interview can help organize your thoughts so you give clear, concise answers. I was very impressed by how genuinely nice and professional these people are, and I am looking forward to continuing my career at Capital One.
Answered Sep 21, 2020
1st was a phone interview with recruiter, 2nd was a phone interview with a associate, 3rd was a series of video interviews with 5 people on the team you'll be working with (1 hour each with 15 min break between each)
Answered Mar 4, 2020
How long does it take to get hired from start to finish at Capital One? What are the steps along the way?
Asked Jun 28, 2016
Here’s how it goes. Fill
Out an app and usually take an assessment if it’s your first time applying, if the recruiter for the job likes your app and resume they will send you an online video interview it’s just you answering behavioral based questions like you’re on face time, if that goes well the recruiter will call you- times on this can vary I’ve waited weeks to the next day , they will talk about what the position is and pay and ask if you’re still interested if so they will tell you the days and times available to come in for an interview with a hiring manger, you will have a 1:1 interview in a small room typically on the floor you would be hired on they will ask you 4 behavioral questions that they want answered in the STAR method. After the interview is over they will tell you a time frame to hear back from the recruiter about the position” the hiring manager told me it could be up to two weeks, however the recruiter contacted me the next day and offered me the position. Just be prepared for your interview and answer the questions correctly- the more details the better. I was also given a tour after my interview of the call center
Answered Oct 24, 2018
When I applied to be a customer solutions specialist it took about 2 months after applying to get a response for an interview. After the interview, I received a job offer the next day.
Answered Oct 16, 2018
How long does it take to hear from recruiters after taking an assessment?
Asked Sep 8, 2016
2 weeks and that was only from locating recruiters email and sending a request for a response.
Answered Oct 13, 2018
2 weeks, really depends on how urgently the position needs to be filled.
Answered Sep 7, 2018
What is the most stressful part about working at Capital One?
