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Frustrated by deeply ingrained financial institution culture, despite a lot of rhetoric to the contrary

Senior Software Engineering Manager
Current Employee
Has worked at Capital One for 2 years
December 7, 2016
McLean, Virginia
3.0
Doesn't RecommendPositive OutlookApproves of CEO
Pros

Plenty of capital resources. Lateral mobility. Upscale office designs. Flexible office schedules. Solid benefits. Offices in several locations.

You shouldn't have to worry if your paycheck will keep coming.

Cons

Very difficult to get ahead. The antiquated year-end review process is designed to contain costs, not reward and retain performance and talent. Good people are forced into lower bracket performance bands so target distributions are met.

There is way too much focus on perceptions and not enough focus on real business value.

A very competitive environment results in people willing to submarine others for their own ambitions. Self-imposed schedule pressure creates stress and diminishes quality.

Organizational infighting.

Way too much energy is spent on recruiting instead of retention and training.

Poor IT support often gets in the way of productivity.

Too often, "more people" is the answer. When really, fewer, but better people would lead to superior results.

Numerous facilities and space management issues. You will likely move your desk at least once a year.

Advice to Management

Rethink how performance evals are done.

Rethink the org structure. There are LOBs, and there are separate orgs by core competency. This makes it very difficult to get anything done. Indeed, we are inefficient as the objectives of these orgs rarely align.

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