The interview process started with a very professional approach but ended unprofessionally. Overall, the experience was good, but it could be better.

I applied for a Mainframe Sr Software Engineer role in February 2016 for the Chicago location. Initially, I received a call from the recruiter, who was great. She asked for a copy of my resume and a couple of basic job-related questions. Then, I received an email with an online assessment link. The exam consisted of 12 multiple-choice questions followed by 3 coding questions. After this, I received an email from the recruiter stating that I had passed the exam and they wanted to schedule a telephonic interview.

The telephonic interview was purely technical, with questions based on past projects and some mainframe/COBOL. Following this, they scheduled a face-to-face round. They provided airline tickets, hotel accommodation, and a luxury cab. I must say I was impressed up to this point.

The interview day, however, was not good. There were 4 rounds with different managers. They all seemed confused. Three of them were not even mainframe engineers. They read questions from a printed sheet and recorded my answers on it. Each round was 45 minutes long. Most of the questions were behavioral, and only the last manager asked me technical ones. Two of them were not even aware of the position I had applied for.

I had applied for a Technical Lead in the Development area position, but on the interview day, one of the managers told me they were interviewing for Production Support. This was totally unprofessional. I said a big 'No' to support, as I have never worked in support and do not want to. They could have informed me of this at the very beginning, and I would not have wasted my time.

My advice for mainframe applicants:

Capital One is phasing out mainframe technology, and most of the work they have is just production support (I gathered this information from current employees while eating lunch in the cafeteria).

Eventually, all mainframe operations will be shut down in the company.

Just prepare what is present in the document sent by the recruiter.