Capital One Canada gives credit to employee growth

Steven Zhang hasn’t had much time to digest his new position as a strategy analyst at Toronto-based Capital One Canada. He joined the Canada Credit Limit Increase team a few months ago — his first job since graduating from Western University with a double degree in mechanical engineering and business. His job is data driven and team focused, and he loves it. But he already knew that before joining, thanks to a four-month internship with Capital One he completed the summer before graduation.

“What drew me back was the culture,” says Zhang. “It’s young, dynamic and filled with energy. It’s a supportive culture that almost feels like a startup in a sense but you have the support and resources of a large company behind you.”

“It’s really important for us to have people start off on the right note,” says Becca Mintz, vice-president of credit and data. “We have a program called the Canada Analyst Development Program, basically an onboarding program for new analysts. They learn the economics of the industry and hard skills like coding languages. It also gives them access to an awesome group of mentors and buddies throughout the company to help ensure that they get off to a strong start. We have similar programs for our new software engineers, our new process managers and other employees.”

Like Zhang, Mintz joined Capital One Canada right after graduating from McGill University with a bachelor of commerce degree 16 years ago. She started as a strategy analyst on the marketing strategy team, spending two years learning website analytics. But she was curious about all the other aspects of the business — a curiosity she assuaged by taking advantage of the company’s rotation program.

“It gave me the opportunity to take on so many different roles internally,” she says. “It’s never felt boring because I’ve had the opportunity to move around the organization and take on new responsibilities. I’ve worked in marketing strategy, product strategy, risk modelling, valuations modelling, all sorts of different roles within the business. That’s really kept me stimulated intellectually.”

Mintz says Capital One is a company that values employee opinions from the start and gives every young employee a voice in the decision-making process. “I remember personally feeling as a new hire, ‘Oh my gosh, you want my opinion on that? How is it possible that my opinion would be taken so seriously so early in my career?’ It really felt empowering and built my confidence.”

Zhang is just beginning to explore the advancement possibilities at Capital One Canada. He’s taking advantage of online courses including a Capital One-specific program called One Learn. “I can look at advanced Python or SQL courses which can be used for my job right now,” he says. “But there’s also access to other things for me to explore and develop.”

For one thing, Capital One’s educational assistance program provides up to $5,000 per employee per year to support education programs outside the company through designated institutions. “You can use it to pursue a part-time master’s in analytics or build up your technical skills as you grow with the company. Or you can do things outside of that. We can even use it for cooking courses at George Brown here in Toronto, which I’m excited to do,” says Zhang.

“I think it really shows how this company is committed to me as a person. This is 100 per cent a place where I can stay and grow a career.”

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Advertising feature produced by Canada’s Top 100 Employers, a division of Mediacorp Canada Inc. The Globe and Mail’s editorial department was not involved.