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They may target similar prospects, but realistically the two will lead you on two different career paths.Do you want to be a business analyst and have an easier transition into tech/fintech (particularly for PM), or do you want to be a consultant and have an easier transition to strategy work (or maybe a chance at PE if you get lucky).
You will enjoy your 20s more working at cap1 (way better hours, pay is going to be a little better the first few years) but OW will let you “delay” the career decision a little longer and keeps your options a bit more open
Pay will be close enough for a few years, so wouldn't worry too much about that
Also wouldn't really factor in prestige. It doesn't pay the bills, if anything CapOne has far more brand recognition than OW to the average person, and nobody in the real world really cares (except as it pertains to exit ops -- but see below)
Exit ops - they're going to be materially different. Are you interested in the types of roles that people from your CapOne team exit to? The less confidence you have in answering yes to that question, the more I'd value the broader variety of exit ops you'd get from consulting
Learning wise I'd suggest consulting. The pace is fast and the WLB is bad, but you really do develop a skillset at working with chaos and ambiguity that will benefit you for the rest of your career. IMO WLB shouldn't be a huge factor insofar as most people only stay for a couple years
Location - this is a personal one. If you're a homebody type or set on retiring early then staying at home is obviously the move, but I see living at home as an adult as a massive con rather than a pro. I think there are a lot of ways that living on your own is important for development and fun. You could do this in your home city though, so again would not be a big factor
All-in I'd take OW for the broader learning experience and greater career optionality
Cap one is so flexible with their remote work you could prob live anywhere although I love the DC area. Definitely great work life balance there as well, and good pay they also promote ppl fairly quickly.However it more depends on the type of work you want to do. I'm not as familiar with OW but I know the business analyst roles at CapOne are very techy/ programmy and not finance related in the slightest. I started in consulting and I generally think it blows as an industry entirely however different strokes for different folks.
Overall I would say what others have posted is right. Capital One BA ADPs can be fully remote after a year. Right now you do need to live close to the office, but its still extremely flexible for being remote. You can just never go in the office or go stay with friends in New York for 2 weeks if you wanted to. The office is really cool though, and its good to get facetime with your manager and other higher ups as they have say over your promotion.
Tools - I would say that the tech 'heaviness' can vary widely from one team to another, and you get a good amount of input on your rotation. If you really don't want to work with Python and you say as much, odds are you won't be put on a team that uses Python. Regardless of position as a BA though you will use SQL, Sheets/Excel (sadly Capital One is pushing hard for the google suite. Some teams are holding out though, and you should be able to download Excel either way for ad hoc analysis) and PowerPoint/Slides. Generally though most BAs I know don't use much else besides SQL and google slides/sheets, with maybe a once in the blue moon project that uses Python.
Learning - Depends on your interest, you are going to learn a lot either way, it will just be different material. OW will likely offer a broader scope while Capital One will be more narrow. The WLB at OW is worse, but you will be using that time to learn more, hone your skills more, etc. so I wouldn't view that as wasted by any means.
Prestige - In what sense and to who? The general public will not know what OW is and people will think you're a teller at Capital One or get mad at you because of their low credit rating. Future careers? Its kind of different paths. Both companies and their college hire programs are well regarded, and the groups that recruit from those talent pools know that. Business school? Similarly viewed as companies, a bit of a wash outside of bucketing. To people on this board? Probably OW, though Capital One BA seems to have really skyrocketed in mentions this year (which is cool to see, but kind of odd/surprising).
WLB & culture - Yes its infinitely better. 40 hour weeks or less is not a joke, depending on your team you don't even need to wear a collared shirt when going into the office(and even then you can pass with a polo and jeans), I had last Friday off, this upcoming Friday off, etc.
Exit ops - Exit ops are just different. Capital One BAs usually go on to roles at big tech companies, fintech, etc. If you want PE as an option you should go consulting. I've heard (but I haven't looked into it) that 2 ADPs went over to PE earlier this year, but I don't know them/know the details. Its a highly unusual exit, and not one that being a BA sets you up for. Its more common that a few people in a class decide to jump over to MBB or IB, usually people who either struck in recruiting during undergrad or decide that they want to make a career change. OW will offer broader exit ops and has the potential for PE. Granted I am not as familiar with OW so I don't know if that is a common exit for them, so you will want to hear from someone more versed in OW exits to verify. In any event PE from OW is more possible than PE from Capital One BA.
Home vs. DC - DC is a fun city. You can also live out in Arlington. It is expensive, but not prohibitively so. Living at home could also be fun (or at least a way to save money), I'm not sure where you are from, and if OW is back to traveling a lot it makes a lot of sense.
Personally I went with Capital One over a different T2 consulting firm. My reasons were; I was not interested in PE, I like Capital One's exit ops, I find Capital One's work interesting, WLB/culture, and my plan is to get an MBA either way. Capital One BA ADPs place into strong MBA programs and you are not bucketed with other consultants for admissions, so I decided to take the better WLB career. Both jobs are phenomenal and you can't really go wrong. If I was less certain though about the fit of Capital One's exit ops for me, getting an MBA, or wanting to do PE I would have gone with the T2.
Source: Capital One ADP BA
Hey! I recently got a BA offer and was wondering what the culture is like in the Mclean office? One of my interviewers described it to me as a bunch of "cool nerds. " Can you speak to what your experience has been so far? How are the benefits and perks? I'm really just looking for some color here
First off congratulations! Its rather late here so going to be going to bed, but I wanted to give some quick bullet answers first. Happy to answer any other questions/expand on this more tomorrow if you want.
Culture:
1) hahahah 'cool nerds' yeah that sounds accurate, or at least we think we're cool.
1b) The ADP class is huge, with most of them in McLean. 2022 I think was ~240, and then there are the other college hires in the FRP, Commercial Banking, TDP, etc. programs. In short, you are going to find people all across the spectrum. If you want people who will want to go play basketball you can find them, if you just want to go watch movies they're there, etc.
2) Culture and norms change a lot from one team to another. As a whole WLB is great, some teams will work more than others, but even the worst teams won't have more hours than Consulting. For other teams there might be a week where you have to work later, or (and this is rare) a big & unmovable deadline, but overall its ~40hr weeks.
3) Office clothes - Changes from team to team, but by and large you could just go with nice jeans and a polo. On my current team just nice jeans and a t-shirt or hoodie is also ok. The dressiest you would ever need to be is slacks and a dress shirt, I've never seen a BA in a suit and tie. When remote just a t-shirt is fine 99% of the time.
4) Remote - BA ADPs can be fully remote after 1 year now with leadership approval. Currently we are hybrid; you have to* live within commuting distance of the office, the office is fully opened Tuesday - Thursday, and offers limited services Monday and Friday. You are not required to go in, and most people are going in 1 - 2 days a week.
Benefits & perks
1) Health care plan options are really good.
2) 401k match is good; they put 3k in your 401k each year regards of what you do. 1:1 match for first 3% of TC, and then 50% match for the next 3%.
3) Associate stock purchase plan - I might mess up some of the numbers here, but IIRC its you can put up to $15k of your salary a year towards buying stock at a 15% discount. A lot of people do this and then sell the stock 2-3 days later.
4) McLean has a really good cafeteria that is well priced (C2's is better than C1's, its worth the short walk over the bridge)
5) $20 a month gym in the office with a basketball court.
6) Different floors have 'games' on them. 1 has ping pong, another has shuffleboard, etc.
7) Corporate phone and Capital One can pay for WFH necessities (monitor, desk chair, etc). I will say this is up to your manager, but I'm not aware of any that have said no to WFH expenses or work phone.
Hey thanks for the comment I found this super insightful. I’m not too interested in PE and I’m more so interested in strategy or tech strategy. Are those common Exit ops or Are the tech ops more PM-focused. Also as of know I’m planning to get an MBA eventually so would it not really matter what I do befor then?
Strategy & Operations roles at big tech, large post-IPO Tech & FinTech, and FinTech are popular exits. There are also people who decide to lean more heavily on the data side and go for Data science roles at the same companies. The position enables you to pursue both (I lean a lot more towards S&O type roles myself). There have also been a few people who leave after about a year or 18 months to go to MBB and IB, but they were more doing a full on career pivot/change.
Generally speaking going directly from BA to a PM role outside of Capital One is uncommon. What usually happens there is someone will move from the BA job family to the PM job family which is pretty easy to do, do a stint there for a year or 18 months and then move as PM to tech company. If you are referring more to full on corporate strategy roles at Tech or FinTech companies, those exits from the BA family are less common. I will say that a lot of people just stay on at Capital One (being in the ADP program generally helps with faster promotions for those who stay or return well after the 2 year program and the pay raises are nice), zig-zag (jump to another company for a year or two and then move back skipping a promotion level or 2), or stay through going to their MBA program.
I would look around on LinkedIn if you have time to see where some former BAs have ended up, and OW alumni. I know its a bit of a pain, Capital One has a lot of software engineers who move companies every month which really cloud up the results, but that should give you a good idea.
In terms of MBA, that is the general gist with some pretty large caveats. There are a couple of popular post MBA roles that do require, or at least it benefits greatly having, a set prior experience. These are mostly; PE, Venture Capital, and Tech PM. For PE you really need to have prior PE experience. You might be able to make it work with just IB experience, but its a steeper climb. VC has more roads that lead to it, but a lot fewer seats than PE and a lot of it will be down to your own network/who you know, oh and being at Stanford for your MBA helps a lot. Tech PM is the least restrictive of the three, but having prior tech or tech-adjacent experience will give you a rather large leg up. Outside of that, it doesn't really matter what your pre-MBA work experience was. MBAs are designed in no small part for career pivots. Your prior work experience does matter for admissions, which both C1 BA and OW look good for, and then companies hiring from MBA programs generally operate under the assumption that the School's cohort is strong. If say you tried applying from even Harvard MBA program with just Starbucks Barista on your resume, at that point you would probably be filtered out of interviews for most post-MBA roles.
Basically for most MBA positions, aside from the aforementioned three, the hiring company expects that you have 2.5/3+ years of work experience at a 'good' job, which they know the schools will filter for already.
Also a BA (2nd yr). In terms of hours, do want to just say that it can go over 40 depending on team. But overall a great job, I agree. In terms of exit opps, one thing I've noticed is most people are 'lifers', meaning they usually stay for 7+ years
Cool to see another BA on here! Definitely true, things can vary a lot from one team to another, and just because you are in the same LOB or even report to the same skip does not mean your team will operate the same way. The current team I am on is very relaxed which is nice. So far I've mostly heard the less-than-stellar hours coming from some guys on Commercial Banking teams, and one or two people in Mainstreet. Still nothing crazy, but more hectic than my current team. And yeah there are a lot of lifers and zig-zaggers for lack of a better word.
what is the comp progression for BAs over time?
I think you made the right decision, maybe I'll see you in the McLean office if you'll be there (I'm an incoming BA!) :)
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