Capital One is a great company to work for, with some challenges to work through
Pros
Capital One has a robust hiring process and hires very smart people. The culture is collaborative and is supportive - although there are politics everywhere, my closest friends at Capital One were my peers, who genuinely wanted me to succeed. Because of the investment they make in the hiring process, Capital One encourages continued leadership and professional development. They also believe in the "individuals" they hire, which means they give them the support they need. This also means great buildings to work in and a comprehensive campus in Richmond, VA. Capital One is more supportive than any other company I've seen when they have layoffs. Capital One is positioned to survive the economic crisis and will likely continue to grow, albeit at a slower pace than before.
Cons
Capital One has the "legacy" culture (from the credit card business) which is very entrepreneurial and prizes intelligence over functional experience (i.e. they're smart & can figure it out) as well as a Bank culture, which is traditional bank (i.e. prioritizing banking experience over raw intelligence). As Capital One acquires more banks, it is unclear which culture will dominate in the long term. The downside to the entreprenerial culture is that it encourages people across the organization to focus on the next "great" idea, rather than on the execution of the idea (one of the reasons customer experience continues to be a problem). Also, they believe in "reinventing" themselves, which can be good, but can also lead to abrupt eliminations of multi-year projects. They've had rolling layoffs across the company over the past few years and this appears to have become a habit.