How Capital One supports tech interns’ growth

Capital One is helping students transform our industry by giving them the skills to succeed in AI and machine learning. 

The Tech Incubator Internship Program is a partnership with the University of Illinois and University of Maryland, where Capital One sets up offices on these college campuses for students to work and learn. 

Students work on teams centered around emerging AI and ML capabilities that will transform our industry. And for the associates who oversee the interns, it's an opportunity for them to gain leadership and mentorship skills as well.

Gaining tech and leadership skills

Nikhil works with the AI Training Team to contribute to a machine learning model that will make labeling data faster and more accurate. This will help future machine learning and AI efforts, which rely on data labeling, to work more efficiently. Nikhil designed a data integration package for the first time, expanding his coding skills with Python and getting more comfortable using Amazon Web Services. 

“The scope of the project is so much more impactful than with any other internship or school assignment I’ve had before,” Nikhil said. “It never feels daunting, though. We have a strong support system to help us succeed.”

Ebony, a product manager for the AI Foundations team, is helping Nikhil navigate the internship as his mentor. She signed up as a sponsor for the program to gain additional support for her team and implement the coaching skills she’s gained while earning her MBA with the help of Capital One’s tuition assistance benefit.

“I don’t have any direct reports, so having interns gives me a chance to be a better communicator and leader,” Ebony said. “I have to learn how to explain myself and break down our work in digestible ways.”

Nikhil said Ebony has been most helpful in breaking down his work into smaller goals and coaching him on communicating the value his work is adding.

“Seeing how well our interns are supported, and being part of it myself, has encouraged me to consider how I can support others in their careers,” Ebony said. “Our internships foster support for everyone involved.”

Diving into AI

Having already completed two data science internships, Abhi was seeking a program to give him a chance to merge his love of data with his desire to learn more about machine learning and AI. He found that with the Tech Incubator Program. 

Abhi is part of a team helping Capital One conduct internal experimentation with generative AI applications such as large language models (LLMs), including research and experiments with model accuracy and  state-of-the-art methods to evaluate  LLM-generated summaries of text. 

“My internship has been putting a lot of theory into practice,” Abhi said. “At school, we’re often learning about or solving very linear problems. At Capital One, we can experiment, explore and use critical thinking. It’s very exciting.”

Jing—a data scientist and Abhi’s mentor—has supported him through every step of his work. After Jing’s team helped build one of Capital One’s AI tools last year, she knew it would be an exciting opportunity for students to work on innovative tech. 

Jing designed a very thoughtful onboarding process so interns could meet the teams they’d be working with, learn about the current scope of their work and understand the tech and machine learning tools they’d be working with. She also made sure the interns’ work would make a real impact on Capital One’s AI journey.

“Our interns have brought so much energy, creativity and value,” Jing said. “Serving as their mentor has also given me an invaluable opportunity to continue to grow my technical abilities and leadership skills. This has been one of the most fulfilling experiences I’ve had at Capital One.”