Capital One

Most of the team is generally pretty easy to get along with. The software engineering culture has the potential to be very stimulating, and there is generally a lot of opportunity to engage in interesting work.

Work-life balance is good. Compensation and benefits are at market level.

The return-to-office policy isn't great. The specific expectation for office attendance hasn't really been articulated, and no future plans have been shared. This leads to a lot of distrust towards management.

There's a huge emphasis on "networking" in the performance review process, which leaves folks feeling confused about promotions and gives the impression that quality work isn't really important.

There's a middle management layer of "lifers" who are generally complacent or incompetent. These folks tend to engage in lots of busywork, which is corrosive to the morale and culture of teams at lower levels.

Layoffs! Trim the fat.

Senior leadership (VP+) seems very competent and articulates a strong vision the team is eager to get onboard with. Generally speaking, the imperatives handed down could make a great engineering culture and overall workplace.

Within the Software Engineering Orgs specifically, you have a thick layer of entrenched incompetence at the Sr. Manager to Sr. Director level. Over the last few years, a varying hiring bar along with the Dead Sea effect has left the company with a tenure problem. Most of those who have hung around long enough to reach higher-middle management aren't terrifically competent or out of touch with modern software engineering practices. This causes a ton of toil at the entry to manager levels, where work is actually getting done.