Good company for undergrads looking to develop skills, bad for long term career - Principal Project Manager Capital One Employee Review

3.0
Oct 16, 2011
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

-Smart people -Good training -Good industry exposure -Good company name brand (for getting into MBA school) -Work life balance (Normal hours are 9-5, 1 hour lunch break, work from home Fridays) -Really good pay for undergrads -Good experience (i.e. I was managing multi million dollar budgets 6 months after joining the company as a 21 year old) -Resort like facilities (private in door basketball court, walking trails, gym, tennis court, baseball field)

Cons

-Way too many reorgs (I had 3 managers 1 year) -Promotion system a joke, its a seniority based pecking order, meaning those people who had a higher rating than you the year before will stay above and managers will look for reasons to keep you in that order regardless of your performance (I literally had one of my managers tell me that the only reason she gave me a "strong" rating on an attribute instead of a "very strong" is because if she gave me a very strong, it would've looked like I had more very strongs than strongs and that I then should've gotten a very strong rating overall ... umm... isn't that the point??) -The company had a promotion freeze and then fired all the low performance. Since the promotion system is based on a forced distribution, it meant that it became that much harder to get a good rating and the bar is always moving. A common phrase you'll hear from managers during performance review is: "You did an awesome job this year, but unfortunately the bar has been raised again [so even though I've been telling you how great of a job you've been doing throughout the year, in reality its only average]" - in other words, its a moving target and you never really have a good idea of how close you are to it

Explore other reviews about Capital One

5.0
Jun 20, 2026
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Work life balance is a plus here

Cons

Up to you to find opportunities to push yourself

3.0
Jun 19, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Some of the smartest individuals in their fields. The focus is always “forward” and the company is willing to adopt new tech to stay ahead for the purposes of the company’s (key word there) benefit. Great PTO and benefits.

Cons

The company’s drive to keep itself moving forward has caused it to regress in other aspects. As a leading tech company first, and leading bank second, it’s embarrassing what their stance is on hybrid and remote work. The company can easily accommodate remote options for their employees not near main offices, but chooses not to. I am relocating to a major city with no major CapOne presence and their response was “too bad, either fly up weekly or you’ll be terminated for not meeting the hybrid requirements”. It’s embarrassing because most of my week is remote anyways. I wonder how many current and past employees have been impacted, and I’m worried about how much talent they’ll be pushing away in the coming years.

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