Strategy Analyst Intern Review

The internship was very enjoyable especially considering the whole programme was conducted via WFH (due to the pandemic). I learned lots quickly, both technical and general skills, thanks to well planned development sessions and a great support network. Despite dealing with many of the common challenges faced as part of working from home, I always felt like a real part of the team. It was abundantly clear that Capital One take their intern/grad development program seriously and genuinely want to help their new hires succeed.

I was treated essentially as a full member of my 5-6 person team, no differently to any of the others (who were all full time employees). My colleagues were really patient and willing to take time out of their schedule to get me up to speed wherever needed, and once I became well acquainted with the subject area of my project they treated me as the expert in that area and respected what I had to say. All in all it was a surprisingly positive experience as I'd expected to feel more like 'the intern'; this wasn't the case at all.

The programme team assigned me a manager, a mentor and a buddy who all gave me plenty of support and were generous with their time to an extent I would not expect. My manager was always forthcoming with feedback and straightforward on where I was doing well as well as how I could improve. My mentor was similarly thoughtful and we had catch ups several times a week specifically for giving me guidance. I can't stress enough how seriously they take this.

My intern project was akin to a research project where I was set a pertinent business question and allowed to explore it in various directions as I chose. This meant that I had to be a lot more self-motivating than I was used to being at university where weekly essays and problem sheets mostly dictated my schedule. Initially I found it hard to concentrate given the lack of impending deadlines, especially as I was working from home, but by the end of the internship - and with the help of the programme team - I was able to strike a decent balance between keeping myself busy and getting in breaks.

I was given a question to research that definitely had the potential to be a reasonably large opportunity for the company, so I felt that my work had a real impact for the business and it was important to handle responsibly. At the same time I'm quite thankful that my task didn't feel like an overwhelming responsibility in that it wouldn't have brought down the company and created a horror story if executed imperfectly - in many ways I felt like a consultant evaluating the prospect of a new proposal without having to worry about keeping an essential part of the business operation running.

In terms of technical skills I improved leaps and bounds with SQL and Microsoft Excel which will themselves be very useful depending on what work I do in the future. On the soft skills I was able to work on my presentation skills, confidence in (virtual) relationship building, time management and organisation which will all help me in my degree studies and elsewhere. Overall this was a great programme for learning widely applicable skills and I would absolutely recommend it to students looking to pick up a great deal of valuable experience without grueling hours or lots of busy work.

The 'office' was pretty great for an entirely work from home setup but at the end of the day it was still work for home, so I felt that a lot of the usual camaraderie you'd get from collaborating and interacting in a physical space was missing. The programme team did an excellent job making up for this by going above and beyond to organise socials, networking events and virtual team building activities but it just wasn't the same.

Aside from a few tech hiccups at the start this was about as close as I think you can get to a perfectly organised virtual internship. I was seriously impressed by how seamlessly all those elements came together considering that the programme team had only had a few weeks to figure out how they were going to move everything online! A smooth calendar system meant that I had no problem keeping track of what needed to be done.

Capital One takes personal training and development very seriously. My manager and other senior leaders in the company seemed to be interested in me as a person much more than as a prospective future employee, and took time discussing my future plans with genuine concern regardless of whether those plans included Capital One. They endeavored to ensure that while at the company I received a great experience and learned as much as possible, so that wherever I went next I'd be equipped with useful skills picked up from my time here.

Most interns receive return offers.

There was a solid social scene between both the analyst and the tech interns, despite the WFH setup we met up via Zoom regularly and participated in games and activities where able. I definitely got the feeling that if we'd been able to be in the office as usual our cohort would have bonded well. I feel like my cohort are people that I would be happy to work alongside full time. Everyone was easy to get along with, interesting and smart.

N/A: Work from home due to Covid-19

N/A: Work from home due to Covid-19

There were lots of opportunities for activities outside of work even over the virtual sphere. Our internship experience included a murder mystery, an escape room and many rounds of Drawasaurus for example, and there were other activities and socials in the evenings for those who wanted to attend as well. These were always well advertised via email and the internal calendar system, and anyone was welcome - so the barrier to getting involved was low.