A Capital One intern sits at his laptop at a Capital One campus dining area

Real work, real impact: Our intern stories

Starting on day one, Capital One interns get right to work. From analyzing threats in cyber security to tracking metrics in real time with machine learning and more, they take ownership of real projects that make a difference in the lives of our customers and associates. See what happens when our interns take the lead and build what’s next.

Keeping customers safe with cyber security

Protecting people has been Chris’ guiding principle for as long as he can remember. His dad is a retired United States Air Force veteran, and Chris serves in the Wisconsin Army National Guard. With his work through Capital One’s Cyber Security Internship Program (CSIP), Chris found a way to continue keeping people safe. As an intern, Chris worked with the Cyber Fraud Tactical Intelligence (CFTI) team to help protect Capital One and its customers from online criminals.

“It was awesome making a difference so early in my career,” he said. “I got to do really interesting work and have all these amazing learning opportunities. I feel like I’m on my way to being a subject-matter expert.”

Milo’s dream job as a security center operations analyst also led him to the CSIP. During his internship, he helped gather insights and packaged that information to share with leadership to shape their cyber security strategy.

“I was completing the exact sort of work I’d be doing if I was a full-time associate,” he said. “At the same time, I got to interact with all kinds of people and learn about their jobs. It helped me understand the aspects I like, what I don’t like and why I want to be a security operations analyst.”

Exploring tech through product management

As a computer science major, Zelia wanted an internship that went beyond expanding her coding skills—she wanted to learn how technology is transformed into digital tools and platforms that people actually use. She found that opportunity with Capital One’s Product Development Internship Program (PDIP).

She interned with Enterprise Consumer Products, which delivers internal products that help Capital One teams support customers. She led the product discovery phase to think through how they could better support associates using an internal database. Through analyzing existing research and interviewing associates, she gathered enough data to present a problem statement to kick off the tech solutioning process.

“Product management is complex because there are so many people from different teams involved—engineering, data, marketing—and it can feel daunting jumping into such an unconventional and new space,” she said.

Matthew is another intern who grew through PDIP by building tangible solutions. He used Product College, our in-house resource, to learn from experienced product managers, which helped him envision a larger career goal for himself. “I dream of leading a team of developers, designers and business experts to create transformative products that benefit people worldwide.”

Gaining machine learning and AI experience

Sharon spent two summers with the Technology Internship Program (TIP), where she made it easier for Capital One teams to adopt machine learning and AI. During her first internship, she worked with the Retail Bank AI Architecture team to deploy generative language models for an internal product. The following summer, she worked with the Financial Services Data & Insights team, where she expanded an internal machine learning platform that allows teams to track metrics in real-time. Both of those projects gave her opportunities to improve her skills with Java, Mosaic and AWS.

“I only had some experience with machine learning or AI before coming to Capital One,” Sharon said. “I’m not intimidated anymore by that technology. I’ve grown and blossomed.”

Cayla also gained experience with AI and machine learning during her tech internship. She learned about back-end and front-end development and machine learning with the help from her teammates and resources like Tech College, our engineer-designed, associate-led learning platform with thousands of free courses.

Using data to build connections for customers

Maryama spent a summer interning with the Early Analyst Internship Program (EIP). While there, she worked with Card Partnership’s Trade Credit team, supporting loan servicing on the customer management side. Her work gave her the opportunity to use Snowflake and make data-backed decisions while also learning SQL with the help of her colleagues, strengthening her problem-solving skills and making connections across the enterprise.

When Joel interned with the Management Internship Program (MIP), his end goal was also to help customers. While he worked with the Customer Happiness Enablement Segments and Strategy team in U.S. Card Operations, he researched how to expand products that can be used to handle credit increases by interviewing associates, then synthesized the information he gathered to create a new tool the team can use to help customers—even after his internship ends.

“My project had a real impact, went to a real team and helped real customers,” Joel said. “That’s pretty incredible to say as an intern.”

Three Capital One associates stand around a desk and laugh together

Interning to help make the world a better place

Xiomara’s dream is to one day work with the United Nations or World Bank to reform international finance and lending involving developing countries. Her internship with the MIP helped her get closer to that goal. She met with associates in Card, Risk and Emerging Platforms, which helped her understand the business side of banking.

“My experience with Card Risk helped me understand how processes are documented, what regulations are applicable to different business decisions and how expansive regulations are in regards to lending and banking,” she said.

Like Xiomara, Megan’s two summers with Capital One’s internship programs got her closer to her career goals, plus she learned to code, communicate effectively and speak up with her questions. She worked with Card Services to create a machine-learning model that predicted when customers would close their credit cards. She also worked with Retail Bank to build models that detect internal fraud.

“I want to work with data to make the world a better place,” said Megan. “That sounds like a lofty goal, but Capital One shares the same goal. I’ll carry the things I learned in my internship throughout my professional journey, wherever it may take me.”

Visit our Student & Grad page to learn more about our internships and find the one that’s right for you.