A reflection on my time at Capital One
By: Derek Xiao
Tags: Careers, Growth, Personal Development, Problem Solving, Product Management

I started my career with Capital One when I was a sophomore in college.

That first internship was the start of almost a four year journey. During that time I’ve worked on four different teams, tried three different roles, and met countless people who have inspired me to be my best.

I’ve been able to continue solving new challenges, which made leaving an incredibly difficult decision. I have bittersweet news to share that today was my last day at Capital One.

One of my mentors at the company holds a personal philosophy that resonated with me — “growth happens in the space between” (thank you Hameto).

Before starting the next phase of my career, I wanted to write this article to reflect on my experiences over the past four years and share 35 principles for problem-solving that I learned along the way.

From then to now

Winter 2016 — Capital One externship

In the fall of 2016, I was a sophomore in college searching for a summer internship. No company wanted sophomore interns, so I started applying for “externship” programs en masse.

To be honest, I had never heard of Capital One when I was invited to the phone interview.

Luckily I did well enough to be accepted into the program. I spent one week at the Plano, Texas campus, and I was stunned.

I saw a mission-driven company that put its people first. I discovered a framework for thinking that was customer-centric, design-oriented, and analytical. And most importantly, I met people who lived by inspiring, shared values.

After the externship, I had an opportunity to do a final round interview for the summer analyst program. I was walking across my college campus heading towards the business school after the interview when I received a call from my recruiter.

I was probably the first candidate to ever accept an offer on the spot.

My experience that summer confirmed what I had seen during the externship. The next summer I returned to the company and rotated to the New York office.

When I came back to school my senior year I didn’t think I would return to Capital One because I wanted to transition into product management.

And then one day I received a call from my recruiter. The company had created an APM program, and they wanted me to be part of the inaugural class of ten associates. I again happily accepted.

Since starting full time in August 2019, I’ve had the opportunity to lead multiple development teams, ship two new products, and work with countless talented individuals across the company. And as I solved each unique challenge, I began to develop a universal framework for problem-solving.

A framework for thinking

One of the most impressive aspects of the Capital One culture is teaching people how to solve problems.

Underlying every decision is a foundation of systematic, structured thinking that can be traced back to the founder and CEO’s career in consulting. Learning frameworks allows you to apply a small set of heuristics across a broad range of problems.

As a tribute to the MECE framework (maybe 80% MECE), I’ve grouped my learnings into five categories: Strategy, Execution, Storytelling, Influence, and Leadership.

As I put this list together I tried to avoid the infinite number of platitudes that exist in each category. Next to some, I’ve also included the names of colleagues and mentors who guided me along the way.

Strategy

Start at the end Find the leverage (learned from Amanda B.) Fall in love with problems not solutions (learned from Teague H.) Where are we going? Where are we now? A good idea is worth ~$0.01 (learned from Jennifer L.) Universally applicable framework: Main point -> 3 supporting pillars -> Evidence (every deck ever made)

Execution

Execution > Strategy (learned from David S.) Don’t be comfortable with ambiguity… remove it Clear goals inspire action (learned from Ben Z.) Make inductive leaps Test then invest (learned from Aram T.) Flare, focus, repeat Great artists steal (credit: Picasso) Constraints breed creativity (learned from Jennifer L.) The key to finishing is starting Document process and decisions (learned from David S.)

Storytelling

Write the storyline first (learned from Michael S.) Ask yourself “… so what?” to define takeaways (learned from Michael S.) Data craves narrative Why waste time say lot word when few word do trick Use silence to create emphasis (also Michael S, very excellent narrator)

Influence

Share context (learned from Oliver D.) State assumptions Understand before you’re understood (learned from Oliver D.) Choose your battles / give and take Develop personal relationships (learned from Michelle J.) Respond with “Yes… and” (learned from Michael M.)

Leadership

Your job is to create clarity (credit: Michael Sippey) Set goals as a team (learned from Ben Z.) Communicate the why (learned from Hameto B.) Clear is kind, unclear is unkind (credit: Brené Brown) Build momentum Celebrate the team’s achievements Create psychological safety (learned from Tom D.) Acknowledge your ego (learned from Steven Z.)

The next chapter

I‘ve learned an incredible amount during my time at Capital One that I know I will carry with me throughout my career.

I ultimately decided to leave so that I could continue to tackle new and larger challenges. In order to achieve that, I’ve decided to join Arctype and lead their growth efforts.

Arctype is an early stage startup creating a collaborative SQL editor for teams. There are some exciting things happening, and I’m looking forward to sharing more in a later post.

“You’ll never regret taking a bet on yourself” — Mike K, mentor

Capital One provides bank accounts and credit cards, but it creates critical thinkers, problem solvers, and storytellers.

In the interest of brevity I was only able to list each principle at a high level, but I plan to dive into each category in depth in future posts. I am setting a goal for myself to write more and share my learnings as I start this next chapter.

If you are interested in product, growth, or startups, you can follow along by subscribing to my newsletter — Shipped. I am excited to join the Arctype team, and to everyone that I worked with at Capital One — thank you.