I applied online. I interviewed at Capital One (Toronto, ON) in Aug 2016
Interview
The first part of the interview is a 30 minutes test with hackerrank including 7 questions, one on sql, one on python and the rest are multiple choices questions on simple math and probability. Then there is a 15 minutes phone interview discussing your cv and some behavioral questions. Next, it is a case interview which I haven't done it yet.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Why are you interested to wore for Capital One?
What are your salary expectations?
I applied through a recruiter. The process took 6 weeks. I interviewed at Capital One (New York, NY)
Interview
I do give kudos that the HR was highly professional and kept things going smoothly for a long process. HR did treat me respectfully and humanely. In spirit of it I have to say was good.
The process is scored on a number of dimensions, and they will not discuss much about job fit unless you pass their technical tests + interviews. I think this makes it hard to specifically know upfront whether the job is one that makes sense in the first place, so I think the process could potentially be a time-sink if you don't pass.
The most common theme you'll encounter (reflected in the other reviews) is the firm is in somewhat a purgatory state: it's trying to take a noble path of humane and innovative banking, while moving away from 'legacy' ways. Their term for this is achieving "unassailability" - essentially they define this as not being shady. The irony is they almost make it sound like a new concept. The spirit of where the firm wants to go is a good one I think, but it comes down to whether they really walk-the-talk, or are too stuck in their ways.
I do appreciate that they tried to systematize the process, but in my case there were a few unfair things their system didn't account for. First, I didn't find out that my case interviews were via teleconference until just before the interview. It's a big disadvantage if A) you have never done a business case interview before, and B) because teleconferencing equations / notation has some difficulties vs. interviewer being onsite. I personally found it hard to see the equations, and took me time to read the interviewer's screen. I think they could have printed out the problem set for me, so I could see it on my side. Instead the interviewer would ask me to copy down a snippet of the screen at a time, and then hide / minimize. It's a bit unsettling since you won't know how many questions are left, and you can't easily flip back to the earlier part of the problem without asking the interviewer. HR did suggest to show working out, but for the pad and pen I was given I really had to put it right against the camera for the interviewer to see it. Gave up on that after a while. If you copied a piece of the problem wrong, the interviewer won't be able to help to correct it. All-in-all I doubt these logistical differences are fairly accounted or remedied properly. I do think if the skill of math biz case via teleconference is one they want, it's highly amenable to practice / training.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Biz case study interview, behaviorial, technical case study, technical interview.
Applied for the position and they requested I take an assessment test. The assessment test was a programming test with hackerrank. The position requested experience with SQL or SAS but I couldn't chose one of those languages for the test. I didn't do well so I did not make it past this step.