Lots of promise, some positive intent, poor execution
Pros
Work life balance. Innovative and industry-leading work in some areas (but not outside of the core front line businesses)
Cons
I have never seen a company offer so much promise based on its reputation, and then succeed in beating the potential and enthusiasm out of highly capable people. I have worked at several companies during my career and see the specific problems at Capital One as: 1) "Tell me what I want to hear" - the senior-most leaders are so sure that "what got them here will get them there" that they only want to listen to people who use the exact same kind of language, communication style, and ideas. 2) The emperor has no clothes - This follows from #1 above. Leaders don't want to listen to ideas from people who have gained expertise in other banks. They are rewarded for being generalists and lack depth of expertise - yet they do not want to leverage the people who do have that expertise, for fear they'll be overshadowed. 3) Lack of maturity in people leadership - Little weight is placed on the maturity of people leadership skills and talent development, even at the executive levels. This leads to short-sighted org decisions, lack of investment in talent hired from the outside, and external hires at all levels feeling like they're not fully utilized or challenged. 4) Performance management - claims to be objective and transparent but is very susceptible to favoritism and disproportionately rewards loyalty above other factors. Old timers at the company heavily favor other old timers. 5) Cultural hubris - Only Capital One experience counts. Only Capital One has a "high bar for talent". Skills built at other institutions aren't recognized and made use of.