More than a job: Tech skills for community impact

Leading youth coding sessions. Designing pro-bono architecture for startups. Launching global literacy missions. Our associates don’t just volunteer—they use their professional strengths to solve real problems within communities, building leadership and strategy skills along the way. Here at Capital One, you don’t have to choose between a high-growth career and giving back. You can have both. 

Read four stories of associates who’ve found a place where they can pursue their personal passions and contribute to the causes most meaningful to them.

Tabot: Gamifying the next generation of tech

Before joining Capital One in 2021, Tabot spent more than a decade teaching computer science across Nigeria, Mauritius and Kenya. These days, he’s a product manager in Business Cards and Payments but he hasn’t left his love for education behind.

Tabot and his wife lead a youth coding program designed to spark creativity through problem-solving and critical thinking, where he channels his passion for tech for the next generation. 

“We meet with the kids and we begin with a block-based programming environment that enables them to tell stories and to build games and animations," he said. "The goal is to give them that foundation that they need to understand programming concepts.” 

He also volunteers with the Capital One Growth Consulting team, where he applies his product manager expertise to provide pro-bono advising for startups and small businesses. He loves getting into the weeds with entrepreneurs, helping them troubleshoot their biggest roadblocks so they have the headspace to grow their business.

“When I’m helping a startup find their footing or a student build their first game, I’m sharpening the same strategic skills I use to build products every day,” he said. “Mentoring others keeps my own perspective fresh and my strategy sharp.”

Emily: Be the change you want to see

For Emily, an engineer in Boston, the transition from student to professional wasn’t just about changing titles—it was about realizing that even at a large company, you have the freedom to build the culture you want to live in.

It started during her internship, where she noticed a gap in how teams navigated complex regulatory reporting. Rather than just shadowing the process, she upgraded a Slackbot with the ability to understand and respond to simple questions, making the whole system much easier to use. “That bot is still being used today,” she says. “It was the first sign that even as an intern, your curiosity is treated as a serious contribution.”

When Emily returned full-time through the Technology Development Program (TDP), she saw an opportunity to make the new Boston office feel like a tight-knit community. She stepped up as a site lead, focusing on making the location feel like a high-energy workspace. “In Boston, you really feel that ‘tech-first’ energy. It’s an environment where you can Slack anyone to grab coffee and learn, but I realized that to make a big company feel small, you have to be the one to bridge the gap between the office and the city around us.”

Emily took that philosophy into the community, coordinating monthly service days at the Greater Boston Food Bank and serving as a committee lead for Capital One Coders, where she teaches middle schoolers HTML and CSS. She also runs interview-prep workshops for young adults at an organization that helps foster youth entrepreneurial skills.

This journey from student to volunteer mentor has been a full-circle experience for Emily; she went from having her own resume reviewed at a campus event to being the one on the other side of the table, helping local students find their confidence.

“At Capital One, you don't have to wait for permission to make an impact,” she says. “Whether it's writing code that saves a team days of manual work or organizing a volunteer event that helps a neighbor, you have the autonomy to go out and build it.”

Afua: Turning a passion for literacy into a global mission

When Afua launched a nonprofit to send books to children in Ghana, she found an unexpected supporter: a Capital One leader. Afua, who joined Capital One in 2011 as her first job out of college, grew up in a family that deeply valued learning and education. Motivated by the lack of libraries she saw during visits to Ghana, she launched her nonprofit to give kids there the same opportunity to fall in love with reading, just as she had.

Word of the project reached a leader on a different team who, inspired by her mission, mailed a box of books directly to Afua’s doorstep. For a strategy program manager like Afua, that gesture was a clear signal: her professional path and personal purpose are meant to fuel one another.

Her own career journey includes pivoting from a customer care role to a tech career, where she currently also co-leads a peer mentorship program for associates to find their own passions. “I’ve always had a passion for filling gaps,” Afua says. “Whether it’s literacy for children or building confidence in our mentees, it’s about making sure everyone has the tools to succeed.”

Anna: Scaling tech and prioritizing people

Anna’s journey started when she joined the Management Development Program (MDP) in July 2022. Coming from a college background in leadership and public policy, she was nervous at first about how her skills would translate to a tech environment.

Now an MDP graduate and a program management lead on the Risk Tech team in Boston, she’s grown her technical skillset and confidence along the way. In her role, she manages complex strategy and technical projects that ensure systems are integrated, secure and efficient across teams. Anna applies that same strategic leadership to her community work, project managing everything from food bank drives to assembling care kits for children in cancer treatment.

For Anna, the support she receives proves that professional growth and community service aren't mutually exclusive.

“My leaders truly value our personal passions and give us the flexibility to pursue them,” she said. “I never have to choose between delivering on a critical project and showing up for a volunteering event. There’s a culture of support that means we can do our best work while still making a difference in the community.”

A culture that multiplies impact

From Emily’s community drives and Anna’s team-wide service events to Tabot’s coding workshops and Afua’s literacy mission, these stories prove that professional mastery and community impact go hand-in-hand.

Our associates know that the same curiosity and problem-solving they bring to work are powerful tools for giving back—allowing them to show up for their communities with the same heart and expertise they bring to their teams.

Discover a career where your impact reaches beyond the office—explore our culture today.