Capital One

• Long and flexible PTO
• Decent benefits

First of all, I'm not sure how Capital One has so many positive reviews on Glassdoor. There have to be many fake reviews here.

In my six years working there, I didn't know anyone (at least in Retail Bank IT) who was really happy about working there. Most were absolutely miserable.

On one hand, Capital One gave me a lot of experience and exposure to things I wouldn't have encountered otherwise. On the other hand, Capital One caused incredible stress to my life because of their morally bankrupt performance management, politics, dishonest and cowardly management, and constant turnover.

If you are considering working there, understand one thing: You are a number on paper. That is it. If management feels that you are not helping their agenda (if anyone even knows what it is), they will push you out by ignoring you and your work, lying about your performance, and finally firing you (they call this "redeployment" to make it sound less serious).

In my last year there, I worked extremely hard to go above and beyond every objective assigned to me, only to have my current manager do a pathetic job at presenting me to the performance management calibrations, which by the way, are based on the opinions of other managers who don't necessarily know anything about what you are working on. It was then I knew it was time for me to go.

The whole system is not just ridiculous and absurd; it's immoral. It is a system designed for upper management to empower "yes men" managers to control hiring/firing.

Capital One is extremely political. I even had a co-worker tell me that to be successful there, I should focus more on being visible than my actual work. Believe it or not, he was right.

Thankfully, I found a much smaller company where I don't have to put up with all the nonsense and can be rewarded for my actual work. It's absolutely wonderful.

If that's what you are looking for, stay far away from Capital One. However, if you are an outgoing person with above-average job skills who is good at politics, you'll probably excel.

Make no mistake, Capital One is one of the best companies I've ever seen at marketing a spotless image to the outside public, but on the inside, it is toxic, although it will take new hires a while to pick up on this.

Middle management can't do anything. They are struggling just like everyone else. It's upper management that's the problem, and they won't do anything because they have drunk the corporate Kool-Aid.