It’s Graduation Day! Capital One MRP
Sometime in September 2019, I went to a coffee chat at UVA for Capital One’s Analyst Development Program (ADP). Quickly realizing I probably wasn’t the best candidate for the job considering I had a liberal arts degree, was pursuing a master’s in higher education, and hadn’t done any real business analysis course work, I asked about this other program: the Management Rotation Program (MRP).
I went ahead and applied, navigating my way through the interview process consisting of a behavioral and a power day (behavioral, job fit, and case). Shortly after I received news that I’d made it through, and a few weeks later I accepted and waited it out until my start date in July 2020.
I actually initially deferred my start date to February 2021 so I could chase a dream and play professional baseball for the 2020 season, granted I earned the opportunity. But as we know now, 2020 was a bit rocky and I was fortunate to bump my start date up to July after the MLB Draft was shrunk from 40 down to 5 rounds after an abrupt end to the college season.
Still in the early stages of the pandemic, I popped open my laptop that summer to start a job remotely that I didn’t think I really had any business doing.
My first role (lasting 12 months) was a project management & analyst role on the company’s Cyber Brand Defense team. Now you may be asking what that is, and at the time I was doing the same thing. How did a media studies & American studies major with a dash of higher education in a supplemental year (victory lap/super senior/5th year by some people’s estimation) of college end up on a cybersecurity team? Honestly I’m still not sure what landed me there, but I shortly realized it was a great place for me to start my career. I had a kick ass manager & team, the organization’s culture was outstanding, and I was given the space to do some impactful work… Cyber genius in the making you might say (kidding). I learned a lot in the first year, and credit the awesome team around me for their support.
Come rotation time, I worked with my development advisor (a manager+ level colleague to aid in your development), buddy (a colleague a year ahead of me in the program), and rotation coach (a MRP alum who’d been through the rotation process in the pass) to fill out my preference form in hopes of landing a product management role. I loved what I’d been hearing about the job family and wanted to get closer to working with a cross-functional team and push the boundaries on my skillset in a new area. And my request was granted!
My second role (also lasting 12 months) was a product management role on our enterprise messaging platform. I worked primarily with a tech team who owned central architecture to our message delivery flows, while also having some additional opportunities to work on initiatives outside of my typical day-to-day as my scope increased. I knew going in that this role was going to be difficult, and after a year I can officially confirm that it was. It was my first venture working as a product manager, being on an agile tech team, running SQL queries, etc. Much like my first role, I had a manager who was a walking Wikipedia of the past, present, and future of the platform and was a wonderful (and proved to be necessary) resource as I tried to onboard quickly. I can look back at where I was over a year ago and see how much I learned and improved in a year’s time. My “wide-eyes” got a little less wide, to put it simply.
Recently I went through the process to officially become a product manager (at Capital One there’s a process candidates must go through to officially change their job title, regardless if they’re already in a role or not), and following my second rotation I’ve accepted and recently started a new role as a product manager on our agent servicing platform. As with the prior roles, there’s a lot of learning I’ll do over here, and I’m stoked for the opportunity that lies ahead.
I never had a “traditional” internship. I didn’t have a “traditional” background for a bank or tech company. But I was welcomed in with open arms based on my unique background and transferrable skillset, and I jumped into something brand new and found some success.
To sum things up, I accepted the role with the MRP so I could learn. Learn what I like to do. Learn what I don’t like to do. Learn new skills. Learn how to have patience. Learn how to accelerate my work so others didn’t have to be too patient with me. Learn about different role types while having the benefit of sticking with the same company. Learn how to contribute to a strong company & organization culture. Learn how my contributions fit into the greater mission of a company with 50k+ employees. Two years later, I still don’t know what I want to do with my career, but I’m a bit further along in figuring that out than I was before… I call that a success.
While my time in the MRP officially wraps up with our “graduation” today, I’m looking forward to remaining connected with the program through recruiting, mentorship, and wherever else I can plug in.
