When I interviewed at Capital One nearly 2 years ago, my
interviewers didn’t ask me what languages I spoke. But here I am, learning to speak a new
one. Each day I pick up a little bit
more – a word here, a phrase there, a cool new term or two. I learn by immersion and also because I have
to. If I don’t learn to speak the
language, I’ll get left behind.
I’m learning to speak Technology.
Not power buttons and “help, my screen froze!” I’m learning about the Cloud and big data and
technologies our engineers speak fluently.
Thanks to our Technology Development Program – Capital One’s fastest
growing population of college talent – I’m engaged in conversation in their
native language daily. And today I got
to see them in action.
As a recruiter of Tech talent out of Ohio State, Michigan
and UNC, I had the chance to spend time with some of my candidates at a Welcome
Weekend in Richmond. With offers on the
table, these candidates are invited to see us on our home turf before making a
decision. And I get to join them for
brownies (err…lunch?) We talked about
cold brewed coffee and the weather in Columbus and spring break plans. Languages I speak. I live above a coffee shop in D.C. and I’m
smitten with their college town and I, too, was once a college student.
And then they started tech talking. Palindromes and cybersecurity and
Hadoop. I nibbled my brownie.
On my way home from Richmond, I called my dad. I gushed to him about Capital One’s move to
AWS. What the cloud means for cybersecurity
concerns. And how this is cutting edge,
really cool stuff. I could sense him
nodding along, waiting in his car for me to stop my rattling so he could pick
up his dry cleaning. And then my dad
chimed in something about the Boy Scouts and building a radio. I’m not sure he was speaking my language.
- Jenny
