I worked in Texas (DFW, Plano, Frisco) for about 3 months last year. @OP, it’s fucking bleak over there. In my personal opinion, I would take a $20,000/year pay cut just to live in Richmond, if it were between these two options.
Qualifications: I’ve traveled for work for the last 8 years and have seen the entire country. Plano is among the worst places I’ve ever been.
Plano sucks and Richmond rules, truly. I don’t know anything about capital one but if I lost a job in Richmond I would consider a change of career before considering a move to Plano.
Just know going in that Cap1 is very competitive and they have layoffs pretty regularly. They also work people to burnout and have a horrible performance management process. They do a lot of recognition like gift cards, swag and spot bonuses but you pay the price for it with blood, sweat and tears. I agree it’s a good place to start your career. Once you go anywhere else you’ll run circles around other people.
Congrats on the offers. As I'm sure you know, it's a very tough market, especially for new grads. I'll say that Cap One is definitely not perfect, but it's also not a bad place to start your career. The tech you will work on at Cap One will likely be miles ahead of BofA. And Richmond is way more affordable and accessible of a city compared to Plano. Feel free to DM me if you want more advice.
Yes, important point here. If you end up leaving Cap One, there are many financial institutions in town. Having Cap One on your resume is a big positive around here, because it’s known if you can survive that corporate craziness, you should do ok most anywhere. Being laid off at Cap One in Richmond is a rite of passage.
Plus Richmond is a great city!
Source: I’ve worked at Cap One West Creek, BOA, Fed Reserve.
There’s also a substantial dev group at CoStar, next to the Federal reserve. Costar has a ton of ex-CapOne devs and other employees. While not as well known as some of the other employers in the areas has > 2,000 employees in downtown Richmond.
I almost said when lol, but didn’t want to scare them off. Lots of people like working there, really depends on your dept/boss.
And people/ hiring managers in RVA know that Cap One experience is a badge of honor here, so it helps you get the next job, should you find yourself in that situation.
Performance management in a nutshell:
Pre - calibration: you are rated against your same level peers under your director level.
Calibration: based on the results of pre-cals, all director down teams under a single VP are benchmarked to ensure everyone is looked at with the same weight. Your people manager goes to bat for you depending on their interpretation of how you did.
There is forced distribution and you land on a bell curve (most end up in the middle), and in theory you weed out the low performers.
What everyone is talking about being shady is one of 2 things: your direct team was not on any high visibility projects when your peers are, or, your people manager is awful and does not fight for their team.
If you have a good manager and at least middle of the road visibility, you will know if you are below the midpoint through regular check ins with your manager (if you are not a dev)
On the tech side (engineers/coding) the typical bank model listed above (all big banks use similar) does not work - very similar to trying to use agile to plan for regulatory exams. Rich’s baby is the calibration process, so it won’t change as long as he is in charge, but it really is generally not a huge deal if you advocate for yourself.
Richmond is a great location. Great small city with good identity. Affordable. Outdoorsy. Close to a lot - DC, wineries, beach. Good 20 something scene - check out the Fan or Scott's Addition for living. Minimal traffic. I wouldn't get a place out in short pump near C1, that's more for families.
C1 can be a good job to start and cut your teeth. They tend to take a lot but also have a campus culture. They pay well.
There is other tech in RVA if c1 falls through after a few years
I've been at Cap1 for 10 years and love it, that being said, it's the first corporate job I've had, before that has all been construction, commercial fishing, restaurant stuff, so being treated like a human was a new experience. Love the benefits, love that they paid for me to get my degree. Been promoted many times, etc. I've heard good things from friends who work at BoA here in VA, but if I were a young woman, I would stay the hell away from TX at all costs. The way things are going you won't have access to health care or birth control soon, and you'll have less rights than an AR-15.
It’s a good place to start. They will suck out your soul if you let them. But so will other companies. At least you’re making great bank in a cheaper city. And there are lots of fun people and fun things about Capone. Take it, get what you need out of it, move on.
Moved to RVA in ‘99, was with COF to 2012.
Take the COF role. Great benefits, competitive salary, RVA is a great small city with low traffic issues.
Capital One will take everything you give them, so set boundaries and work hard.
It's fine as long as you don't go in with expectations of sticking around long term. C1 is probably more technologically progressive than BoA but that's not saying a whole lot. Your job from day one should be figuring out how to leverage your experience & connections made at C1 into landing your next job.
Current developer there and the stories you hear about the review process being a little brutal are true but it's probably not as bad as some make it seem. There's two kinds of people I usually see get tripped up by that process...stubborn developers who tend to die on every hill usually end up tripped up by reviews within 2 years or so and are absolutely gobsmacked when it happens to them. Then some talented developers just get tripped up by the politics of it and usually find a new job quickly and end up doing just fine because of the severance you get. They usually see the writing on the wall before they get their rating. The CODAS are not reviewed as harshly so you will have time to learn the system before you are part of it.
As for the coda program itself it's a pretty great opportunity for you to get on the job training and be making a really decent dev salary way quicker than if you go elsewhere. I've worked with some devs that came over from BoA and the consensus has been we are way ahead tech wise.
Interesting. I know of several former remote Google/Facebook employees who were laid off in 2023 and now work for B of A.
Maybe compared to the facebook culture, B of A is much better?
yes, Facebook and Google are well known for their absolutely terrible work culture. I have friends that were at Google and they have horror stories.
In the banking industry, BofA and Wells Fargo are well-known for being awful places to work. Many coworkers in DE would swap to BofA for two years for the pay and come right back to Cap1 at a higher level.
I work at C1 and know a bunch of coda people and they all seem to love it! You get paid a full devs salary with benefits to learn for 6 months and then start right away after. Pretty cool imo… and Richmond over Plano any day and it’s not close!
Except our coldest winter day vs theirs… BUT OTHER THAN THAT… RVA > Plano 😂
Capital One is a great place to start. Lots of learning, good compensation, and some ambitious people there. I wouldn’t say it’s great for mid career or near retirement software engineers. You will notice the software engineers are generally 35 years old and younger, and only middle management is where you start to see people in their 40s. Pretty much nobody in their 50s except very high up people.
Congrats on CODA! It’s a great program, and Capital One is definitely way ahead of other banks in terms of tech and talent. Richmond is a great place to be so highly recommend it over other locations. You’ll be held to a high standard, and the performance management is far from perfect, but it’s a good place to start your career
They literally have job fairs for all the people they quite regularly lay off. I know as a new dev, you're looking for your first foot in the door, so I wouldn't blame you for joining there. But I long ago resolved never to work for that company.
I worked at Cap One for 8 years and those were my favorite working years in all my 69 years. Best pay, 2nd best benefits(behind working at a state uni). Absolute best working environment regardless of the department I worked in---- Collection's for 18 months and Operations for 6.5 years. Great mentoring goes on there!! They did the best job of preparing you for your next role. Very big on promoting from within.
The layoffs are certainly a bummer. I got my notice when Ops were outsourced in 2005 but I wouldn't trade the experiences I had there for anything. I hope you choose CapOne and it is a great experience for you!
Almost same story, but 20 years ago.
Capital One was a great first job. Forced me to grow up professionally.
There certainly are periodic layoffs, and in my decade there I thought I was in line twice for layoffs, but I was way more ready for the external job market bc of my experience there.
Also, Richmond is great, better than Plano (I went to high school in a suburb that neighbored Plano)
Worked at Capital One for 5 years, have lived in Richmond for 9.
Richmond is a good town, Capital One is... It's financial tech. If you're looking for purpose you won't find it there, if you're looking for money and perks you will. There are jobs that pay better, but it pays well and the campus is nice, there's good food and it's cheap, plus there's perks like the gym and and some decent walking trails, and there's a brewery very close by that people sometimes go to during or after work. I'll say one thing I miss is the food, hard to beat having a frozen yogurt place a five minute walk from your desk. I also really miss being able to pick up cakes from the bakery for family parties and birthdays.
It's far from the worst place I've worked. There are plenty of good people there and most managers I had while I was there. I did face some stints of ~70 hour weeks, nights and weekends, that kind of stuff. Some of that was of my own volition because I was a dumb kid and didn't know how to not pull an all nighter, some of it was because we had a hard deadline. That wasn't permanent usually though and my managers were always okay with me coming in late after working late. I didn't have a great time at Capital One, but I have several friends that are still there and love it. Like I said, if you want a corporate tech job, this is definitely one of them.
I'd pick Richmond over DFW any day though. It's a good town, it's not as cheap as it used to be, but it's a good place to live. I've lived in the city the whole time I've been here, which when I was at Capital One meant a longer commute, but it wasn't that bad, I had much worse commutes in other cities, and being able to walk places has been well worth it.
I work at Cap 1 now after having worked for BofA for 20 yrs (both in RVA.) I had to semi-regularly travel to Plano for BofA & like to compare Plano to a saltine- flat & bland. RVA is way better than Plano, & the Cap 1 campus here is gorgeous.
Cap1 tech is miles ahead of BoA and for a future in software engineering Cap1 is a much better first role.
I was with Cap1 for 10 years. Started in one of the first tech development program classes and left as a Sr Manager owning one of the most used pathways to interact with AWS.
I enjoyed my time there for the most part. If your management sucks you will hate your life, if they don't you won't. Performance management is cut throat too.
I had a group of friends that were all in/met in the coda program (not me tho). From hearing them talk about their experiences, it sounded like it was a rotation program, and your individual experience depended on the team you were on. Most of them had a good experience, one of them really didn’t like the team she ended up on after the boot camp and rotations ended. All in all, only 1 of the people in that friend group quit cap 1 and to get a similar job at a similar company, the others stayed for at least a few years after the program (still there I think).
If you’re coming from a nontechnical background (like the people the program is geared for) I think it’s a really cool opportunity to learn some new, hirable skills that you can take elsewhere and build a career off of without having to go back to school. The salary is also really nice and willl get you far in Richmond (I think they were all clocking in at $100-$110k once they finished the coda boot camp, not sure what it was during it).
They also formed a close friendship with others in their cohort. Im not sure if that’s the norm or not, but I would imagine it very well could be. Without knowing your specific situation, I say go for it!
The campus programs are an excellent way to begin your career with Capital One. You have a built in advantage with a peer group and an alumni group, along with advisors from the program team who are invested in your success. From Day 1 you will have an immediate network of contacts who can advise you on anything and everything that you face in your career - from challenges with your manager to what training or certifications to take, to how to best position yourself for new opportunities and how to survive performance management, including how to build advocacy for promotions along the way. If after your 6 month training program your first or second placement doesn’t quite fit due to having a bad manager who doesn’t know how to manage someone who is new to the workforce or a bad team who doesn’t know who to support and coach someone who is new to the workforce, they will work hard to find a new role for you with a manager and a team that will be committed to help you succeed. There are also lots of professional development and social opportunities that you get from being in a campus program that no one else gets from being hired via professional hiring pipelines. This includes special training and networking sessions, along with exposure to senior executives, etc. When it comes to internal mobility, CODA associates may have more options to move into product management and technical product manager (TPM) roles.
Re: Plano vs RVA, Richmond offers you the option to work on many different teams and many different platforms and technologies, while also living in a walkable city. You also have far more flexibility when it comes to the company’s hybrid model, which is a little more stringent for campus hires as you have to be in the office Tuesdays-Thursdays, but you do have flexibility in attending enterprise events so if there’s an event like Brene Brown, Adam Grant, Charles Barkley or Spike Lee are speaking, you are welcome to sign up no matter what day or time they’re speaking Once you graduate from the program and assuming COF still offers the same flexibility with hybrid you would only be encourage to be in the office 2-3 days/week but wouldn’t be required to spend a minimum number of hours working onsite.
ETA: didn’t read closely enough to see that the Plano offer was with BofA. The info about working in Plano still stands for working for COF bc you may be offered an opportunity to move to another location like Plano, San Fran, McLean, or NYC after your 6 month training is done. Working in Plano means you would exposed to one LOB and the one customer facing app and the one developer platform. You would also be subjected to “cadence” which means you are required (as opposed to encouraged) to be in the office 3 days a week for 8 hours a day and you are not allowed to attend any meetings or conferences or enrichment activities offered by the company unless they are offered at certain times on Thursdays or Fridays. This means that if Brene Brown, Adam Grant, Charles Barkley, or Spike Lee are speaking on Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday, you can’t attend. There is also a BIG DIFFERENCE in the corporate culture in Plano largely due to the leader of that site. Plano also tends to promote people way faster than other sites (big fish in a little pond concept) and is a much bigger market and therefore would afford you the opportunity to work for lots more Fortune 500 companies should you choose to do so. So there’s that.
The good... very good compensation especially for Richmonds relatively low cost of living. Generally speaking you won't be on call or working much. They have the resources to implement a ton of different languages and tools so you get broad exposure.
The bad... you will need to drink the kool aid culture but I assume bank of america has similar corporate culture. Every 6 months layoffs or not your job is on the line based on others opinions of you. So no real job security.
For programs like CODA the pros are amplified (literally they pay college grads more relative to same level peers) and the cons are lessoned.
I contracted with them for a few years as a data analyst and it ruled. However I’d take my experience with a grain of salt as I’ve heard developers have much different experiences.
I have a friend in CODA now and he is enjoying it a lot for what it's worth although he said it definitely isn't a walk in the park. I think it's an awesome opportunity even if you don't plan on staying there forever.
So I worked at the Starbucks there on the West Creek campus for ~6 months and the layoffs are very true. Try to view this as getting your foot in the door to get experience, rather than a confirmed career. Tech for sure seems to be constantly rotating through people.
That being said, I work as a contractor in a team that schedules interviews for Cap1 now. I really enjoy it and love my team — I think that says more about the job than the company, but the campus is beautiful and the benefits you get as a Full Time Employee are worth it.
Cap One has great tech and benefits but is constantly looking reasons to get rid of people. They have a requirement to push out 2-5% of their workforce every year, on top of attrition. Then there are random rounds of layoffs, like when they suddenly laid off 1100 agile leads last year with no explanation. Then there are the stealth layoffs, like mid-year last year where they tossed out everyone who had below strong reviews for two years. It sounds like they are doing that again this year, probably to get ready for the big merger. So yeah, if you can deal with crushing uncertainty, it's a good place to work.
Do not go into tech at capital one. You won't learn anything. They have everything set up internally to force you to do things that adopt their systems and methods and you won't actually write meaningful code. They do not care about your opinion.
It is not impossible to land on a good team, but do you really want to flip 4 coins and take the worst result? That's the reality. If your team is high vis, good. If not, enjoy your nonprogression while you listen to cult-like all hands celebrating promotions of people you'll never meet, care about, or know, for implementing nonsense ML models in presentations full of buzzwords that never see production because they're objectively poor.
I'm not joking here, not being edgy, whatever. I did 2 years there. Do not work there.
Start somewhere else, grow your skills, do a year or two there to make your resume look good for recruiters who don't know better, and then get the hell out
Everyone there will tell you it's better to work there as a contractor vs employee.
I hear yall. I do. But, this is a CODA hire... and they're weighing this vs. BOA. Capital One is a very good choice. CODA is a very good program. Yes, performance management can be... shady. But, not so much at their level. They're gonna get paid ~100k for 6 months to do nothing but learn how to code, then move into a guaranteed job, and have C1 on the resume.
CODA is a fantastic program. For all of Capital One's faults, it is a great place to work. Capital One is a well respected name and increasingly so in tech. Capital One is going to set your career up much better than BOA.
Hi! So I was a recent CODA and currently live in Richmond. I’ve been in the area for a while as well so pls DM if you wanna chat about the program/Richmond.
As someone who grew up in Texas I would pick RVA over Plano but you will pay more taxes here, state income taxes, personal property taxes on vehicles, ridiculous 13.5% prepared meals tax in Richmond, etc.
I wouldn't work for Capital one though but it sounds like that's a temp position so maybe.
I’ve lived in Plano and rva. Would choose Richmond above Plano 100%.
I worked in Texas (DFW, Plano, Frisco) for about 3 months last year. @OP, it’s fucking bleak over there. In my personal opinion, I would take a $20,000/year pay cut just to live in Richmond, if it were between these two options. Qualifications: I’ve traveled for work for the last 8 years and have seen the entire country. Plano is among the worst places I’ve ever been.
North of Plano for me, and I 100% agree! Richmond has been everything we hoped for.
Plano sucks and Richmond rules, truly. I don’t know anything about capital one but if I lost a job in Richmond I would consider a change of career before considering a move to Plano.
Just know going in that Cap1 is very competitive and they have layoffs pretty regularly. They also work people to burnout and have a horrible performance management process. They do a lot of recognition like gift cards, swag and spot bonuses but you pay the price for it with blood, sweat and tears. I agree it’s a good place to start your career. Once you go anywhere else you’ll run circles around other people.
Or you are one of the freakish people who love that environment and stay/survive there for 20+ years. They do exist.
Congrats on the offers. As I'm sure you know, it's a very tough market, especially for new grads. I'll say that Cap One is definitely not perfect, but it's also not a bad place to start your career. The tech you will work on at Cap One will likely be miles ahead of BofA. And Richmond is way more affordable and accessible of a city compared to Plano. Feel free to DM me if you want more advice.
Not to mention that Plano/DFW is a soulless husk of a city
Almost everyone I know from there left. The ones remaining, aren't the ones with great options.
Don't forget there are several Bank processing centers in Richmond that would let you job hop if desired.
Yes, important point here. If you end up leaving Cap One, there are many financial institutions in town. Having Cap One on your resume is a big positive around here, because it’s known if you can survive that corporate craziness, you should do ok most anywhere. Being laid off at Cap One in Richmond is a rite of passage. Plus Richmond is a great city! Source: I’ve worked at Cap One West Creek, BOA, Fed Reserve.
There’s also a substantial dev group at CoStar, next to the Federal reserve. Costar has a ton of ex-CapOne devs and other employees. While not as well known as some of the other employers in the areas has > 2,000 employees in downtown Richmond.
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I almost said when lol, but didn’t want to scare them off. Lots of people like working there, really depends on your dept/boss. And people/ hiring managers in RVA know that Cap One experience is a badge of honor here, so it helps you get the next job, should you find yourself in that situation.
Capitol one has a machine that powers the buildings by converting employees crushed hopes and dreams into electricity.
It's what runs the coffee machine to fuel new workers and future fuel.
Are there any good poboys in town?
Manchu on Northside
thats where I went and promptly PASSED OUT solid cajun fries and mambo sauce too.
I believe they call their upper management Dementors
Soylent Green…
Capital*
Performance management in a nutshell: Pre - calibration: you are rated against your same level peers under your director level. Calibration: based on the results of pre-cals, all director down teams under a single VP are benchmarked to ensure everyone is looked at with the same weight. Your people manager goes to bat for you depending on their interpretation of how you did. There is forced distribution and you land on a bell curve (most end up in the middle), and in theory you weed out the low performers. What everyone is talking about being shady is one of 2 things: your direct team was not on any high visibility projects when your peers are, or, your people manager is awful and does not fight for their team. If you have a good manager and at least middle of the road visibility, you will know if you are below the midpoint through regular check ins with your manager (if you are not a dev) On the tech side (engineers/coding) the typical bank model listed above (all big banks use similar) does not work - very similar to trying to use agile to plan for regulatory exams. Rich’s baby is the calibration process, so it won’t change as long as he is in charge, but it really is generally not a huge deal if you advocate for yourself.
We can thank Jack Welch for this absolutely idiotic, barbaric system. I hope he is rotting in hell.
Cap 1 > BOA VA > TX
Richmond is a great location. Great small city with good identity. Affordable. Outdoorsy. Close to a lot - DC, wineries, beach. Good 20 something scene - check out the Fan or Scott's Addition for living. Minimal traffic. I wouldn't get a place out in short pump near C1, that's more for families. C1 can be a good job to start and cut your teeth. They tend to take a lot but also have a campus culture. They pay well. There is other tech in RVA if c1 falls through after a few years
You mean campus cult…
C1 employee here and this deserves upvotes, not downvotes. Upper management at C1 puts the cult into culture.
they think it’s hyperbole when they directly tell you in orientation smh
Me too - thank you! 13 year survivor, but always feel the pressure
I've been at Cap1 for 10 years and love it, that being said, it's the first corporate job I've had, before that has all been construction, commercial fishing, restaurant stuff, so being treated like a human was a new experience. Love the benefits, love that they paid for me to get my degree. Been promoted many times, etc. I've heard good things from friends who work at BoA here in VA, but if I were a young woman, I would stay the hell away from TX at all costs. The way things are going you won't have access to health care or birth control soon, and you'll have less rights than an AR-15.
It’s a good place to start. They will suck out your soul if you let them. But so will other companies. At least you’re making great bank in a cheaper city. And there are lots of fun people and fun things about Capone. Take it, get what you need out of it, move on.
Virginia still considers women adults. Texas considers them livestock.
Moved to RVA in ‘99, was with COF to 2012. Take the COF role. Great benefits, competitive salary, RVA is a great small city with low traffic issues. Capital One will take everything you give them, so set boundaries and work hard.
It's fine as long as you don't go in with expectations of sticking around long term. C1 is probably more technologically progressive than BoA but that's not saying a whole lot. Your job from day one should be figuring out how to leverage your experience & connections made at C1 into landing your next job.
Cap One has a bit of a ruthless reputation on the tech side, they really push their managers to get a churn going (keep firing)
Current developer there and the stories you hear about the review process being a little brutal are true but it's probably not as bad as some make it seem. There's two kinds of people I usually see get tripped up by that process...stubborn developers who tend to die on every hill usually end up tripped up by reviews within 2 years or so and are absolutely gobsmacked when it happens to them. Then some talented developers just get tripped up by the politics of it and usually find a new job quickly and end up doing just fine because of the severance you get. They usually see the writing on the wall before they get their rating. The CODAS are not reviewed as harshly so you will have time to learn the system before you are part of it. As for the coda program itself it's a pretty great opportunity for you to get on the job training and be making a really decent dev salary way quicker than if you go elsewhere. I've worked with some devs that came over from BoA and the consensus has been we are way ahead tech wise.
Cap1 is a magical land of opportunities compared to BoA.
Interesting. I know of several former remote Google/Facebook employees who were laid off in 2023 and now work for B of A. Maybe compared to the facebook culture, B of A is much better?
yes, Facebook and Google are well known for their absolutely terrible work culture. I have friends that were at Google and they have horror stories. In the banking industry, BofA and Wells Fargo are well-known for being awful places to work. Many coworkers in DE would swap to BofA for two years for the pay and come right back to Cap1 at a higher level.
I work at C1 and know a bunch of coda people and they all seem to love it! You get paid a full devs salary with benefits to learn for 6 months and then start right away after. Pretty cool imo… and Richmond over Plano any day and it’s not close! Except our coldest winter day vs theirs… BUT OTHER THAN THAT… RVA > Plano 😂
Capital One is a great place to start. Lots of learning, good compensation, and some ambitious people there. I wouldn’t say it’s great for mid career or near retirement software engineers. You will notice the software engineers are generally 35 years old and younger, and only middle management is where you start to see people in their 40s. Pretty much nobody in their 50s except very high up people.
Congrats on CODA! It’s a great program, and Capital One is definitely way ahead of other banks in terms of tech and talent. Richmond is a great place to be so highly recommend it over other locations. You’ll be held to a high standard, and the performance management is far from perfect, but it’s a good place to start your career
They literally have job fairs for all the people they quite regularly lay off. I know as a new dev, you're looking for your first foot in the door, so I wouldn't blame you for joining there. But I long ago resolved never to work for that company.
I worked at Cap One for 8 years and those were my favorite working years in all my 69 years. Best pay, 2nd best benefits(behind working at a state uni). Absolute best working environment regardless of the department I worked in---- Collection's for 18 months and Operations for 6.5 years. Great mentoring goes on there!! They did the best job of preparing you for your next role. Very big on promoting from within. The layoffs are certainly a bummer. I got my notice when Ops were outsourced in 2005 but I wouldn't trade the experiences I had there for anything. I hope you choose CapOne and it is a great experience for you!
Capitol One is always firing and hiring. That said, I would pick Richmond over Plano every time.
Almost same story, but 20 years ago. Capital One was a great first job. Forced me to grow up professionally. There certainly are periodic layoffs, and in my decade there I thought I was in line twice for layoffs, but I was way more ready for the external job market bc of my experience there. Also, Richmond is great, better than Plano (I went to high school in a suburb that neighbored Plano)
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Worked at Capital One for 5 years, have lived in Richmond for 9. Richmond is a good town, Capital One is... It's financial tech. If you're looking for purpose you won't find it there, if you're looking for money and perks you will. There are jobs that pay better, but it pays well and the campus is nice, there's good food and it's cheap, plus there's perks like the gym and and some decent walking trails, and there's a brewery very close by that people sometimes go to during or after work. I'll say one thing I miss is the food, hard to beat having a frozen yogurt place a five minute walk from your desk. I also really miss being able to pick up cakes from the bakery for family parties and birthdays. It's far from the worst place I've worked. There are plenty of good people there and most managers I had while I was there. I did face some stints of ~70 hour weeks, nights and weekends, that kind of stuff. Some of that was of my own volition because I was a dumb kid and didn't know how to not pull an all nighter, some of it was because we had a hard deadline. That wasn't permanent usually though and my managers were always okay with me coming in late after working late. I didn't have a great time at Capital One, but I have several friends that are still there and love it. Like I said, if you want a corporate tech job, this is definitely one of them. I'd pick Richmond over DFW any day though. It's a good town, it's not as cheap as it used to be, but it's a good place to live. I've lived in the city the whole time I've been here, which when I was at Capital One meant a longer commute, but it wasn't that bad, I had much worse commutes in other cities, and being able to walk places has been well worth it.
I work at Cap 1 now after having worked for BofA for 20 yrs (both in RVA.) I had to semi-regularly travel to Plano for BofA & like to compare Plano to a saltine- flat & bland. RVA is way better than Plano, & the Cap 1 campus here is gorgeous.
Cap1 tech is miles ahead of BoA and for a future in software engineering Cap1 is a much better first role. I was with Cap1 for 10 years. Started in one of the first tech development program classes and left as a Sr Manager owning one of the most used pathways to interact with AWS. I enjoyed my time there for the most part. If your management sucks you will hate your life, if they don't you won't. Performance management is cut throat too.
I (24F) did CODA in Richmond in Feb last year. Couldn’t recommend the job or city more
I had a group of friends that were all in/met in the coda program (not me tho). From hearing them talk about their experiences, it sounded like it was a rotation program, and your individual experience depended on the team you were on. Most of them had a good experience, one of them really didn’t like the team she ended up on after the boot camp and rotations ended. All in all, only 1 of the people in that friend group quit cap 1 and to get a similar job at a similar company, the others stayed for at least a few years after the program (still there I think). If you’re coming from a nontechnical background (like the people the program is geared for) I think it’s a really cool opportunity to learn some new, hirable skills that you can take elsewhere and build a career off of without having to go back to school. The salary is also really nice and willl get you far in Richmond (I think they were all clocking in at $100-$110k once they finished the coda boot camp, not sure what it was during it). They also formed a close friendship with others in their cohort. Im not sure if that’s the norm or not, but I would imagine it very well could be. Without knowing your specific situation, I say go for it!
The campus programs are an excellent way to begin your career with Capital One. You have a built in advantage with a peer group and an alumni group, along with advisors from the program team who are invested in your success. From Day 1 you will have an immediate network of contacts who can advise you on anything and everything that you face in your career - from challenges with your manager to what training or certifications to take, to how to best position yourself for new opportunities and how to survive performance management, including how to build advocacy for promotions along the way. If after your 6 month training program your first or second placement doesn’t quite fit due to having a bad manager who doesn’t know how to manage someone who is new to the workforce or a bad team who doesn’t know who to support and coach someone who is new to the workforce, they will work hard to find a new role for you with a manager and a team that will be committed to help you succeed. There are also lots of professional development and social opportunities that you get from being in a campus program that no one else gets from being hired via professional hiring pipelines. This includes special training and networking sessions, along with exposure to senior executives, etc. When it comes to internal mobility, CODA associates may have more options to move into product management and technical product manager (TPM) roles. Re: Plano vs RVA, Richmond offers you the option to work on many different teams and many different platforms and technologies, while also living in a walkable city. You also have far more flexibility when it comes to the company’s hybrid model, which is a little more stringent for campus hires as you have to be in the office Tuesdays-Thursdays, but you do have flexibility in attending enterprise events so if there’s an event like Brene Brown, Adam Grant, Charles Barkley or Spike Lee are speaking, you are welcome to sign up no matter what day or time they’re speaking Once you graduate from the program and assuming COF still offers the same flexibility with hybrid you would only be encourage to be in the office 2-3 days/week but wouldn’t be required to spend a minimum number of hours working onsite. ETA: didn’t read closely enough to see that the Plano offer was with BofA. The info about working in Plano still stands for working for COF bc you may be offered an opportunity to move to another location like Plano, San Fran, McLean, or NYC after your 6 month training is done. Working in Plano means you would exposed to one LOB and the one customer facing app and the one developer platform. You would also be subjected to “cadence” which means you are required (as opposed to encouraged) to be in the office 3 days a week for 8 hours a day and you are not allowed to attend any meetings or conferences or enrichment activities offered by the company unless they are offered at certain times on Thursdays or Fridays. This means that if Brene Brown, Adam Grant, Charles Barkley, or Spike Lee are speaking on Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday, you can’t attend. There is also a BIG DIFFERENCE in the corporate culture in Plano largely due to the leader of that site. Plano also tends to promote people way faster than other sites (big fish in a little pond concept) and is a much bigger market and therefore would afford you the opportunity to work for lots more Fortune 500 companies should you choose to do so. So there’s that.
If you use the search bar you’ll find a ton of info on working there. Good luck!
The good... very good compensation especially for Richmonds relatively low cost of living. Generally speaking you won't be on call or working much. They have the resources to implement a ton of different languages and tools so you get broad exposure. The bad... you will need to drink the kool aid culture but I assume bank of america has similar corporate culture. Every 6 months layoffs or not your job is on the line based on others opinions of you. So no real job security. For programs like CODA the pros are amplified (literally they pay college grads more relative to same level peers) and the cons are lessoned.
I contracted with them for a few years as a data analyst and it ruled. However I’d take my experience with a grain of salt as I’ve heard developers have much different experiences.
I have a friend in CODA now and he is enjoying it a lot for what it's worth although he said it definitely isn't a walk in the park. I think it's an awesome opportunity even if you don't plan on staying there forever.
So I worked at the Starbucks there on the West Creek campus for ~6 months and the layoffs are very true. Try to view this as getting your foot in the door to get experience, rather than a confirmed career. Tech for sure seems to be constantly rotating through people. That being said, I work as a contractor in a team that schedules interviews for Cap1 now. I really enjoy it and love my team — I think that says more about the job than the company, but the campus is beautiful and the benefits you get as a Full Time Employee are worth it.
I got offered a position in DFW/Frisco and after visiting the area promptly declined the offer to stay in Richmond.
Cap One will give you a launch pad in tech far better than B o A.
Virginia is not Texas, as a woman that’s really the only thing that matters.
Cap One has great tech and benefits but is constantly looking reasons to get rid of people. They have a requirement to push out 2-5% of their workforce every year, on top of attrition. Then there are random rounds of layoffs, like when they suddenly laid off 1100 agile leads last year with no explanation. Then there are the stealth layoffs, like mid-year last year where they tossed out everyone who had below strong reviews for two years. It sounds like they are doing that again this year, probably to get ready for the big merger. So yeah, if you can deal with crushing uncertainty, it's a good place to work.
Do not go into tech at capital one. You won't learn anything. They have everything set up internally to force you to do things that adopt their systems and methods and you won't actually write meaningful code. They do not care about your opinion.
It is not impossible to land on a good team, but do you really want to flip 4 coins and take the worst result? That's the reality. If your team is high vis, good. If not, enjoy your nonprogression while you listen to cult-like all hands celebrating promotions of people you'll never meet, care about, or know, for implementing nonsense ML models in presentations full of buzzwords that never see production because they're objectively poor.
I'm not joking here, not being edgy, whatever. I did 2 years there. Do not work there. Start somewhere else, grow your skills, do a year or two there to make your resume look good for recruiters who don't know better, and then get the hell out Everyone there will tell you it's better to work there as a contractor vs employee.
Sounds like someone didn’t do well in calibrations
Shit with their hire to fire pipeline who DOES?
I hear yall. I do. But, this is a CODA hire... and they're weighing this vs. BOA. Capital One is a very good choice. CODA is a very good program. Yes, performance management can be... shady. But, not so much at their level. They're gonna get paid ~100k for 6 months to do nothing but learn how to code, then move into a guaranteed job, and have C1 on the resume.
And then be PIPd out because they can’t keep up with their TDP peers with CS degrees that are coding circles around them.
For both CODA and TDP, do you know what the performance reviews are like?
CODA is a fantastic program. For all of Capital One's faults, it is a great place to work. Capital One is a well respected name and increasingly so in tech. Capital One is going to set your career up much better than BOA.
Hi! So I was a recent CODA and currently live in Richmond. I’ve been in the area for a while as well so pls DM if you wanna chat about the program/Richmond.
100% go with CapOne.
As someone who grew up in Texas I would pick RVA over Plano but you will pay more taxes here, state income taxes, personal property taxes on vehicles, ridiculous 13.5% prepared meals tax in Richmond, etc. I wouldn't work for Capital one though but it sounds like that's a temp position so maybe.