Engineering graduate Kieran Flannery looks back at the time he joined Capital One’s Strategy Analyst Graduate Programme in 2020 while giving us an insight into his current role in Fraud Strategy.
How did the Strategy Analyst Graduate Programme set you up for your role now as a Strategy Analyst Manager?
The Graduate Programme launched my development at Capital One and has given me the skills needed to succeed in my current role. The first few months deliver plenty of foundational training in topics ranging from card economics to statistical test design to effective communication. At the same time, I was assigned first projects, designed to strengthen the skills that make a successful Analyst while meeting real business needs.
My first project, designing a Minpay strategy to help customers with the cost of credit, really allowed me to apply my learnings. Rotations are also a key part of the programme, and by working in different areas I was able to build a broader understanding of how the business works, while learning new skills and continuing to grow as a Strategy Analyst.
As a Strategy Analyst Manager I continuously draw on the experience I gained from my time on the graduate programme, and now get to support the development of graduates in my own team, to set them up for success.
How did you find the transition from campus to corporate, and how did Capital One help?
It was definitely an adjustment to go from lectures, labs, and exams to the workplace. The ways of working, the interactions with others, and the expectations are all different, but I did find that transition smooth thanks to all the support that was offered.
It was definitely an adjustment to go from lectures, labs, and exams to the workplace. The ways of working, the interactions with others, and the expectations are all different, but I did find that transition smooth thanks to all the support that was offered by Capital One. This was in part through the graduate programme training and networking which made me part of a community of graduates sharing the same experiences of moving from university to the workplace.
Additionally, in my team I was assigned a mentor and a buddy who had both joined as graduates in past cohorts, so they really understood my position and were able to provide plenty of support and guidance.
What do you enjoy in your role, and how does it allow you to make your own impact?
I really enjoy and appreciate that I am delivering positive outcomes for real people through my current role in preventing fraud. I also enjoy the variety of my role. This will be true for most Strategy Analysts, but in Fraud Strategy in particular I am constantly thinking about different problems depending on the latest emerging threats.
I still get the opportunity to work on longer-term strategies and infrastructure that will set our customers and the business up well against fraud. An example is how we can leverage anomaly-detection models to spot fraud as it emerges, or how we can make our customers aware of the latest scams. These projects have to be fitted around the day-to-day and week-to-week responsibilities and challenges.
What advice would you give now to your younger self?
There isn’t an expectation for you to know everything on day 1, but there is an expectation to be curious and willing to learn.
The advice I always give to interns or graduates who join my team, which I would also have given to myself, is to ask a lot of questions and engage with others to hear about what they’re working on. There isn’t an expectation for you to know everything on day 1, but there is an expectation to be curious and willing to learn. I quickly realised that people in my team are really friendly and more than happy to take the time to explain a problem or a concept. By asking those questions you’ll not only learn something, but you’ll probably find that the discussion you start is a really effective way of ideating and problem solving.