Capital One

The company benefits are competitive. The tech culture needs a lot of work. Even though Rich Fairbank spends a great deal of effort pitching his grand vision, the actual execution falls short in the hands of middle managers. They are way too consumed with their promotions and personal agendas. So while the grand vision CapOne tries to sell is enticing, be VERY CAREFUL with the group that you're joining, because what is a Pro at a high level may just be a mirage.

All the cons mentioned before this post are true: the year-end review process is painfully frustrating, the middle managers exercise a subtle (sometimes blatant) form of favoritism, the geographical/office politics amongst Virginia offices against non-Virginia offices is petty to a fault, and the Human Resources department pretty much sides with management all the time (in many ways, this reminds me of Uber's public relations debacle).

Please be very skeptical when interviewing with Capital One and make sure to ask yourself if you're willing to play advanced office politics. Things are particularly bad in Commercial, which is far from Consumer Retail (the poster child of CapOne recruiting).

My advice to senior management is to really evaluate what your middle management is doing.

Dig deep into those "All Associate Surveys" because that's really the only check and balance you're providing the non-managers.

I can foresee a huge talent drain because no good person wants to stay and deal with this nonsense, and those people will in turn warn their circles to steer clear of CapOne. Sadly, that is exactly what is happening.

Middle managers need to stop playing office politics and actually take care of the existing talent that they have. Empower your employees, and when they do good work, reward them.

Congratulatory Slack messages mean NOTHING, nor do pats on the back. Back up your praises in actions via year-end review cycles.