Capital One

London offices are amazing. The IT kit offered is top-notch, and the people are great. The salary is OK, and there is a lot of flexible working ability.

To me, it feels like it is not a technology company. It is a credit card company using technology in its specific way to achieve its goals. There is nothing wrong with that statement.

The question is whether you want to work in a highly bureaucratic technology team, full of controls and checks, where the main priority feels to be defensive. This results in very slow cycles of work.

The fact that they use AWS is a great thing. The fact that there are processes requiring people to make requests and wait for days to be approved by various teams in various time zones is not great and makes people feel demoralized and frustrated.

Privileges are locked down to the minimum, which again makes work slow. All these may come down to regulations and rules of the industry.

Induction for new joiners is poor. A set of computer-based training takes the first couple of days for the new joiner, which feels so impersonal and dull for a fresh starter. Literally, the first and only thing you do for days is to complete these trainings and create tens of requests for setting up access for your account.

There are also three old-school induction days that take place in Nottingham, where the offices have a restaurant, gym, and are next to the main train station.

The split between Nottingham, where the HQs are, and London is very much felt when working in London. The most interesting IT projects are kept for the Nottingham teams. If that is just a feeling or rumor within the company, then the leadership team should step up and prove it trusts London to carry out more high-profile projects. I have experienced occasions where Nottingham managers thought they could strongarm London managers. Surely the team in London is new but filled with very experienced people that know the London IT industry and can shape a modern IT company in the heart of Silicon Roundabout.