What’s it like to intern at Capital One?

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, Chris found a way to continue keeping people safe.

As an intern in 2024, Chris worked with the Cyber Fraud Tactical Intelligence (CFTI) team to help protect Capital One and its customers from online criminals. 

“It’s awesome making a difference so early in my career,” he said. “My internship experience at Capital One was fantastic. 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.”

Chris was just one of many interns making a difference at Capital One in 2024. Discover how our internship programs provide students with the support and resources to thrive. 

Exploring tech through product management

As a computer science major, Zelia wanted an internship focusing on the larger applications of technology through product management rather than expanding her coding skills. She found that opportunity with Capital One’s Product Development Internship Program.  

Zelia 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. She analyzed existing research and the current competitive landscape, interviewed associates about their use and needs of the database and presented a problem statement to kick off the tech solutioning process.

“Product is complicated 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,” Zelia said. “But everyone at Capital One is super welcoming, trusting and has helped me lean into this discomfort. I’ve learned so much as a part of this process.”

Providing a stronger loan experience

As a rising sophomore, Maryama participated in Capital One’s Early Analyst Internship Program, spending 10 weeks learning SQL and strengthening her problem-solving skills. She put that work into action during the Business Analytics Internship Program.

Maryama spent the summer with Card Partnership’s Trade Credit team. She was tasked with supporting loan servicing on the customer management side. While Maryama is getting comfortable with Snowflake and making data-backed decisions through this project, one of the most critical skills she’s picked up is asking for help. 

Maryama worked out of the Chicago office with her team, who supported her with SQL tips and connected her with colleagues across the enterprise for meet & greets.  

“Everyone is so willing to offer their expertise or just make time to get to know me,” Maryama said. “People are so invested in each other’s success.”

Gaining machine learning and AI experience

Across two summers with the Technology Internship Program, Sharon has made machine learning and AI easier to adopt for Capital One teams. 

In her first internship, in 2023 as a rising junior, she worked with the Retail Bank AI Architecture team to deploy generative language models for an internal product. In 2024, as a rising senior, she worked with Financial Services’ Data & Insights team in Plano, where she expanded an internal machine learning platform that allows teams to track metrics in real-time. 

While she worked to increase access, she’s also improved her skills with Java, Mosaic and Amazon Web Services. 

“I had no 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.” 

Helping internal and external customers

The simple-sounding goal for Joel’s work with the Management Internship Program? Happy customers. 

As a member of the Customer Happiness Enablement Segments and Strategy team in U.S. Card Operations, Joel researched how to expand internal products supporting teams that handle credit increases. 

He conducted interviews to understand what goes right and what can be improved, then synthesized that information to create a new tool that internal teams can continue to use to help customers after Joel’s internship ends. 

“I love how much ownership and accountability interns have over our work,” Joel said. “My project has real impact, goes to a real team and helps real customers. That’s pretty incredible to say as an intern.”

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