Capital One axes over 1,000 tech roles

The same day Google is allowing staffers to work from home while they process the news that it's firing 12,000 of them, fintech biz Capital One has cut over 1,000 roles in its Technology segment. Capital One confirmed the job cuts to The Reg, telling us: "Decisions that affect our associates, especially those that involve role …

[captain veg]

agile is bollox

You can't acquire core competence, let alone basic competence, by hiring an army of monkeys and then micromanaging them. Especially when the micromanagers themselves are actually self-described "project managers" who have no clue at all about how your business actually works.

Rant 1 over.

Rant 2: the word "agile" does not mean rigidly following some methodology like it was divine revelation.

As a sub-trope of Rant 2, anyone born in the British Isles (and in selected elsewheres) knows that a "scrum" is not in the slightest bit agile. Everyone involved pushes uselessly in different directions, going nowhere, until the whole thing collapses in a heap. Often players are hurt or injured.

-A.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: agile is bollox

Repeat after me:

Agile was never a project method methodology!

Agile was never a project method methodology!

Agile was never a project method methodology!

The fact that PMs (fearing for their jobs?) turned it into one, is why it failed. Add to that so-called "project managers" think it means Kanban boards in Jira. Then thinking you can plan sprints by simply adding them up so you get a forecast to justify your existence to the executives. And so on, and so on.

And that's just the things I went through again last week in our precious annual kick-off planning meeting. <breaks down sobbing>

[ecofeco]

Uh oh

Hacked in 3, 2, 1....

[Kevin McMurtrie]

I can't wish Capital One well

Capital One bought ING Direct and my mortgage along with it. Then they sold my mortgage to the gutter-scum debt collector Rushmore Loan Management. I had to nuke my savings to immediately pay off my loan because Rushmore had already started their usual process to fraudulently force healthy mortgages into default.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: I can't wish Capital One well

Can you describe this "usual process" and what flags its start? Can't be many of us who shouldn't know how to recognise this sort of thing.

[Kevin McMurtrie]

Re: I can't wish Capital One well

Rushmore made it extremely difficult to make payments on time. My new account code didn't work. Once fixed, their online payment system crashed whenever I logged in (site literally gone for 2 minutes). They said you should pay by phone or write a check when online payments can't be made. They didn't answer the phone. Online reviews said to purchase certified mail delivery for every check you send or they will claim it didn't arrive.

The company's specialty was, after all, making money on debt collection. My low interest mortgage had no other value.

[NeilPost]

Re: I can't wish Capital One well

Surely that’s a complaint to whatever Financial Regulator exists in your country?

[simonlb]

Re: I can't wish Capital One well

Can you describe this "usual process?"

During the Great Depression, banks would arbitrarily foreclose on mortgages on assets owned by businesses, even if the business was doing well and in no financial trouble. The banks effectively forced tens of thousands of businesses into bankruptcy and put thousands of people out of work, worsening the situation.

This is not a new behaviour.