Capital One

Technology

• Opportunities to work with new technologies. There's definitely a heavy emphasis on using open-source tools, and you're openly encouraged to build with new instead of old. In terms of my personal experience, this includes backend, frontend, and DevOps.
• No issues obtaining the tools you need to do your job (software, hardware). This may be team dependent.
• People are willing to share their knowledge within the company. There are many ways to do this, and it is encouraged.

Environment

• Lots of smart people in the company with varying levels of experience. You can learn a lot from them.
• For the most part, a pretty relaxed environment. People can dress fairly casually.
• The building itself is pretty nice, and a new one is being built as well.
• Snacks! This might also be team dependent.

Benefits

• Excellent 401k matching.
• Other benefits are industry standard for the most part, but are solid.

Performance Management

• You are expected to essentially compete against other people of your level. Even if you perform pretty well for your project and your team approves of your work, it may not be enough.

Technology

• Since there has been such a shift to use new technologies, there is a lot of change within the technology stack. If you use an application which integrates with other new applications/systems, there are definitely some growing pains and a learning curve.
• Still in the process of updating legacy software and integrating with legacy systems. Still needs some time to fully go modern in terms of the stack.
• Agile is pushed, but there still needs to be refinement in terms of how it's implemented. Not sure how different organizations handle this, but there needs to be a FULL buy-in from all parties (business and tech) otherwise it leads to many inefficiencies and Agile in name.

Environment

• Probably a case of preference, but it's mostly an open floor plan. Some people can be loud across the room and you can hear them.
• I wish work from home was more acceptable on a regular basis. It is definitely possible to do this occasionally, but it is not encouraged. This is also probably team dependent.

Continue to encourage people to use and experiment with new technology. Keep on modernizing the infrastructure. If you want to be known as a technology company, keep investing in your own talent. If you want to keep and retain the best, pay us like the best! There's a reason why people will flock to the Googles, Amazons, and Facebooks of the world. Compensation could be better! Keep us happy, and we will change banking for good.