Still a Bank. Lightyears away from a "tech company"
Pros
Work-life balance is the best I've had in the bay area. Benefits are overall great. I've worked with some truly amazing people. Professional development opportunities are great, from paid conference trips and lots of free access to learning material, to 1:1 professional coaching sessions.
Cons
- Don't expect to get a promotion, regardless of how successful and impactful your projects are. People who are flight risks get promoted first, and then the rest of the allotted promotions are dolled out to the managers who are loudest (I wish I were joking). - Expect being blocked by bureaucracy to at least double any project timeline estimation you have. This includes everything from internal approvals, documentation being wrong, a tool/API you're trying to use to not having an owner anymore, to your team all losing access to github randomly (again not joking). - Organizations are very territorial. If someone thinks you're not the right person to talk to about something, they'll ignore you. They won't go out of their way to stop you, but they will certainly not be helpful. - Expect anything you want to do is already being done by at least 3 other teams but you have no way to find out who they are. - Everything needs a business justification so work on your business-speak. - Ultimately the bottom line still comes first, not customer experience. Compared to other banks, Capital One is forward-thinking and ahead of the game. Compared to technology companies in the Bay Area they have a long way to go.