Finding Your Community With Capital One

Marlina knew Capital One was the place for her to have a fulfilling career when she started the Technology Internship Program in 2021. During the internship, which is designed to help students grow as software engineers, Marlina created a Google chrome extension that helps protect users from compromised pages.

In addition to the hands-on work, what bolstered Marlina’s appreciation of Capital One was the community of women technologists who provided mentorship, encouragement and acceptance. Now a full-time software engineer for the Card Tech team, Marlina continues to receive plenty of support and is, in turn, helping interns have a positive start to their careers by connecting them with Capital One resources and leaders. 

“If you’re a woman in technology, I would definitely tell you to consider working at Capital One,” Marlina said. “There are so many people here who are passionate about helping you grow as a person and a technologist.”

Supportive space to grow

While the opportunities to develop tech skills were fruitful for Marlina’s career, the bonus came when her manager encouraged her to join Women in Tech (WIT), Capital One’s Business Resource Group for women technologists. She started to attend a few casual coffee chats and learning sessions.

“Sometimes I was the only intern attending some events. Everyone was super welcoming and always expressed their excitement about me getting involved so soon into my Capital One journey,” Marlina said. “It became apparent that my network was rapidly growing.”

That network was still there for Marlina when she returned to Capital One in 2022 after graduating. This time, she joined the Technology Development Program (TDP), an 18-month program where recent grads work as full-time associates and explore career options while cycling through two different software engineering positions on two teams.  

During her rotations, Marlina has built security updates for card holders using Apple products to help protect them against fraud. She also managed how data and analytics are transferred and captured to support Capital One’s digital infrastructure.  

“Something great that the team did was ramping us up by starting us off with smaller tasks so we could build our confidence and knowledge as we began to tackle bigger projects,” Marlina said. “I felt myself becoming a more able software engineer each week.”

As Marlina built her skills, she also navigated career options. She turned to various colleagues and leaders through the TDP and WIT to ask about their professional journeys. One WIT mentor helped Marlina with everything from taking ownership over tasks as a new team member to setting and achieving goals. 

“I feel so comfortable speaking honestly and asking questions at Capital One,” Marlina said. “I’ve found so many mentors that think about how to apply their own experiences to help me progress in my career.”

Paying it forward

As Marlina has settled into her life at Capital One, she’s taken the time to help other interns and new associates get the most out of their experience by volunteering with the company’s Tech Internship Program. 

Marlina has hosted fireside chats for interns to ask her and other software engineers about their careers, gave them a tour of the New York City office and organized conversations between senior leaders and the students.

“It’s super meaningful to know that you have autonomy as an intern to do real work but still have such a wonderful community that’s invested in you,” Marlina said. “There’s investment in your success and happiness.”