'I Love My Job’: A Talent Expert on Why This Leading Finance Company Should Be on Your Radar

Welcome to I Love My Job, hosted by Fairygodboss President and Co-founder Romy Newman. In our inaugural edition, we’re sitting down with Katie Fitts, Director, Talent Marketing and Communications at Capital One. In addition to being named one of FGB’s Best Finance Companies for Women 2020, Capital One provides incredible benefits like paid parental leave, flexible working options, and more. 

It’s no wonder why Katie loves her job with the company where she says she sees her role as “elevating Capital One to be a beacon brand for top talent.” In Romy and Katie’s wide-ranging conversation, they discuss everything from Capital One’s company culture to balancing work and life. 

Tune in to the full conversation and check out a few highlights below.

I lead our talent marketing and communications team at Capital One. We provide opportunities to really grow your career. I have an incredible team and they bring so much heart to everything that we do. So when we think about what gets us out of bed in the morning, it's really that ability to meaningfully change the potential career trajectory of someone's life. We are helping people connect to that next opportunity. It’s really about marketing with heart and with authenticity. 

The way that we work together in a collaborative way. We are super unified around the mission, which is to change banking for good. So that means putting our customers at the center of our decision-making process. Everything we do is with the customer in mind. That extends from the products that we build and create to the new offerings that we create to support our customers. We’re passionate about doing the right thing. One of our core values is to do the right thing. That extends from our associates (that’s the term used for employees and team members) to our customers to our communities. 

This has been a hard year for work-life balance. Let's talk a little bit about how you manage work-life balance and how Capital One supports it.

At Capital One, it's more of a focus on work-life integration versus the hard and fast kind of work-life balance that some people experience or even how we've traditionally thought about it. 

I make sure I’ve got time blocked on my calendar— that might be a five o'clock yoga class or a tennis lesson. I'm kind of fanatical about protecting that time too, because having that outlet allows me to be better and stronger for my team when they need me.

All of our different teams across the enterprise are doing this, it's once a month on a Friday. No meetings are scheduled, the day is yours to invest in yourself. It could be catching up on the articles that I have open in 35 browser tabs. It could be a learning and development opportunity that’s been on the back burner. It could be catching up on reading or even getting outside. There are very few rules or guidelines or expectations on how you use the time other than investing in yourself. The feedback that I've heard from not only my team, but colleagues across HR, is that it's such a welcome reset. 

The people. You could ask anyone at Capital One and they will probably tell you that answer. We were working not long ago with our campus programs and there were 50 different interviews that we were doing with campus associates. One of the questions was what do you love most about Capital One? Every single answer was the people. 

My other favorite thing is our commitment to talent development and internal mobility. I have seen time and time again and have worked with people very closely who have taken on new roles, who have taken on new opportunities, who are leading new teams. They are excited about that opportunity to really build a full career at Capital One. 

We also have a lot of boomerangs, people who have left Capital One for one reason or another, and then decided to come back. I don't think we would see that many boomerangs in our associate population if there wasn't that opportunity for career growth and a really strong culture.

I would advise women who are interested in a career at Capital One that there's no better way to understand what it's like or what a specific role or job function could be better than talking to someone who lives it day in and day out. I think potential candidates would find that by reaching out to someone who works at Capital One, you are more likely than not to get a response. It is just the way we are. So I would definitely encourage women who are interested to reach out to someone at Capital One and ask for a virtual coffee.

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