mortgage underwriter

funder

administrator

fulfillment associate

underwriter

First National Financial

Work environment and culture are extremely toxic and while company management tries to portray the image that the company is among the best places to work at, they show very poor employee retention.

Employees are encouraged to report on their colleagues and team leaders lack the expertise to manage their team. 

What team leaders lack in skills is made up in their ego.

People are constantly micro managed and bullied by management. Vague company goals/policies coupled with lack of managerial skills lead to confusing policies.

Sales staff operate like order takers and due to very poor payment incentives the only goal is to retain clients at any cost taking away the quality in interactions. 

Every year top employees are awarded for retaining over $200 M and all they receive is a plaque acknowledging the sales. 

Management doesn't care about employees on personal level and upon leaving the company just sends out an e-mail saying the person is no longer with the company without acknowledging the services over the years. 

Overall, very unstable and unfriendly work environment in addition to poor pay.

I joined the company with genuine enthusiasm and high expectations. Unfortunately, after starting, I found that the role did not align with the job description that had been presented during the recruitment process. There was limited onboarding and support, yet employees were expected to perform at a high level almost immediately.    During my time there, I observed significant turnover, including the departure of several employees and the layoff of the manager who had recruited me. As I became more familiar with the organization, I began to understand the reasons behind this turnover: a highly stressful work environment, unrealistic expectations, inadequate communication, perceived favoritism, and ineffective management practices.    Having worked for several large organizations throughout my career, I can honestly say this was one of the most challenging professional experiences I have encountered. I believe the company would benefit from greater transparency during recruitment, improved employee support and training, stronger communication, and more effective leadership practices.

Pros: 
- First National is big on Internal Transfers - Once you get in (traditionally as a Customer Service Admin) you can apply to any jobs there, and they have a preference for internal candidates.
- The culture is great - the teams are fun to be with, actually some more than others.

Cons:
- There is hardly any professional growth. It's a fairly flat organization, with Directors and Senior Managers - NOTHING IN BETWEEN - and then the rest of the jobs. Therefore, you are almost always going to be stuck in a Job Grade 3,4,5 and never grow to a higher job grade unless you become a Manager.
- The Managers do not have your best interests in mind - it's a dog-eat-dog world and they are only concerned about their growth and advancement, and not their employees. 
- Traditionally job's pay around $35-37 as the starting salary. Every performance review gives you a 2% increase and don't even think about bonuses (if you don't work in a Sales job).
- Just by walking around the departments you can tell which ones are more fun (Sales, Underwriting, Customer Service, HR and Training) and which ones are toxic (Documentation, Property Taxes, Fire Insurance, Finance, Mortgage Accounting)

An incredibly toxic environment to work in. Management have zero communication skills and make sure you feel replaceable/like a number while acting like Regina George. They tell you to 'try your best' but your best is never good enough. If you end up working here, do not have an opinion, just get in and get out and hit your (impossible) targets. Don't make a one single mistake though! You will be penalised and your job will be threatened. You're expected to be a robot and the possibilities of 'progression' are lies, 5 years in this place and all it's done is made me physically/emotionally sick. Save yourself, work literally anywhere else! 

Overall a really good company with great internal culture, location and staff, however, who you end up getting as your direct manager and the immediate team you have to work with can either make your work days really amazing or simply miserable. 

Advice to management: you need to listen to your staff, be aware of your team surroundings and take actions to manage the team rather than wait around, hoping that problems will somehow disappear on their own.

FN offers flexibility, and lots of opportunities to move up the ladder and improve yourself. They have online courses you can take, and will pay for certain education if you are looking to improve yourself. There are bi-annual activities to participate in, like prizes for the best dressed at halloween. The people are also excellent, as there is very little to almost no office politics. The hardest part of the job is the seasonality, as spring, and summer are always very very busy, and leading into Christmas it can get very slow. That's just par for the mortgage industry though.

An organization that turns on it's employees on a rainy day. The management expects you to know everything without spending a moment to train. Micro management is in it's roots and they take extra efforts to justify it. Very harmful place for one's overall well being. HR team is not helpful. Very old school culture where your work life can get very difficult if your reporting manager is not in your favour, regardless of your performance. A place which does not believe and invest in development of its workforce.
Would not recommend anyone to join this place.  

This was a great working environment and I enjoyed my co-workers and their company very much as well as all the mortgage related work. The company also provided some training and I found that the learning curve was great and enjoyed the group learning experience.
After training, the workload became intense and there was not enough staff to handle the full brunt of the work that needed to be done. This resulted in a very tense and stressful atmosphere. However the company had great benefits.

It started off okay but the level of micro-managing was unbelievable. Managers would follow you into the washroom and complain about being seconds late. 

Some managers are good but the majority are not.

Pay is garbage. If managers do not favor you they will set you up and purposely fail you on calls that you cannot debate which affects your ability to get bonuses AND can affect your job status.

They hired 3-4 once and fired 3 of within a month span because of how ridiculous they micromanage.

Everything that was exposed in the National Post is true 

This workplace is filled with gossip and discrimination. People spend more time talking about each other than actually working, and management does nothing to stop it. If anything, they seem to encourage it by playing favorites and treating people unfairly. It’s like no matter how hard you work, if you’re not in the right circle, you get overlooked or mistreated. The atmosphere is tense, and you always have to watch what you say because someone is bound to twist your words. It’s exhausting.

Top Job Titles	Average salary
Mortgage underwriter 11 salaries reported	$65,764 per year
Funder 9 salaries reported	$49,056 per year
Administrator 3 salaries reported	$48,267 per year
Fulfillment associate 7 salaries reported	$55,714 per year
Underwriter 5 salaries reported	$74,500 per year

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