Abandon hope all ye who enter here - Anonymous employee Capital One Employee Review

1.0
Mar 2, 2016
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Full time employees get the normal benefits (health, dental, vision, time off, etc.), though the benefits are nowhere near as good as they used to be before Capital One bought this company (we used to be ShareBuilder, owned by ING Direct).

Cons

Where do I begin? 1. Leadership is always saying they want people to bring new ideas and question how things are done, but if you ever begin questioning things you are quickly shot down. 2. The CEO of the company, Rich Fairbank, touts a work/life balance that seems to apply only to him. Salaried employees are expected to constantly travel and put in hours upon hours of work but when he goes on his annual "Strategy Roadshow" he can't even be bothered to come to Seattle. He spins this as a sweet little story about not wanting to spend time away from his family, but it's just disrespectful. The rest of us spend plenty of time away from our families. FUN FACT: When Capital One says you have the option to work from home, it usually doesn't mean you get to stay home and work. More often than not, you come home from a long day's work at the office and just keep working remotely. 3. As others have pointed out, the annual review process is a joke. Associates are stack ranked against each other and their managers are thrown into the pit to decide who gets what bonus. If you had an incredible year of work but your manager doesn't speak up (or another manager argues better for one of their people, regardless of what they accomplished in reality) you're going to get the shaft. Period. It's a political mess and neither your dedication to the company's values nor the quality of your work have any bearing on your bonus. 4. Possibly because of the review process, there is a culture of withholding information and taking credit for work done by others that permeates through a majority of the organization. I could go on, but this should be enough to make reasonable people second guess accepting an interview.

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Pros

Work life balance is great

Cons

Commute to work is awful

3.0
Jun 19, 2026
Recommend
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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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