loan officer

loan specialist

financial analyst

analyst

customer service representative

PENNYMAC

Not a good place to start out in mortgage industry.  2 weeks paid training (you really need about 6)about mortgage basics, history of company, a little about each dept, before they put you on the phones with customers. Very little about the systems  and processes you spend most of your every day in.  No training at all to know answers customers ask or about how to find answers. You're told to ask your manager, your coworkers or the buddy you've been assigned to. (who's been there a few months longer than you.) You may or may not get an answer at all. You constantly have to tell your customers that you don't know the answer and you'll have to get back to them, knowing full well you might never have an answer.  The best resource you have are the Procedures and Policies which are about 20 pages long on every topic and they do expect you to know and practice all of them.  You're expected to teach yourself many essential and difficult job functions with these. Very often they contradict what's said in other places. The scripts are difficult and confusing to the customers and hard to say for you. You cannot have overtime without managers written permission, yet you also cannot have any calls on your dash at end of day, all customers called back and emails responded to.  You end up working off the clock to try to catch up and not get in trouble. If you're having trouble keeping up, you're given no help. Very up and down with stress all the time. Very little support from management, you're on your own most of the time. It's the learning everything all at once and the pressure from all sides that makes it so tough. . If you're not new to mortgage, this might work great for you. Good hours, great pay. Most people you work with are nice or indifferent.  The customers are nice too.  They can get frustrated and angry and I can't blame them at all. 

I've witnessed a diverse spectrum of experiences within the organization. Some elements stood out positively, while others posed challenges.

On the brighter side, the company consistently endeavors to foster a creative environment, constantly exploring innovative products and strategies to enhance sales. They exhibit a commendable commitment to staying abreast of regulatory changes, providing robust training to navigate intricate updates effectively. Moreover, PennyMac embraces a supportive culture, offering assistance through call coaching, encouraging camaraderie, and promoting knowledge sharing among employees.

However, these positive aspects sometimes get overshadowed by the downsides. Certain employees felt constrained within the system, citing a lack of avenues for growth and promotions despite assurances. Metrics play a pivotal role here, although attaining full bonus payouts remains elusive for even top performers due to unspecified reasons. Employees express disappointment over the absence of annual raises and minimal opportunities for advancement. Furthermore, the work culture in some branches or departments has been described as toxic or excessively micromanaged, hindering a conducive and collaborative work environment.

In essence, PennyMac appears to offer a supportive framework for growth and learning, with a consistent focus on innovation and compliance. Yet, the organization grapples with systemic challenges such as restricted growth opportunities, inconsistent reward systems, and perceived toxicity in certain work environments. As PennyMac navigates these internal issues, there remains substantial potential to evolve into an even more vibrant workplace.

I worked here for 8 months and it was never good. You have to wait 2 months for commissions, so whatever you fund in October you won't get December. Even if you close a loan on October 1st. Anytime you miss one of the bajillion compliance points, you get docked $500, if a borrower takes longer than 4 days to get dox in..... There goes half your commission, don't fund at least 8 loans, you only get half on whatever you fund, they dock you if you have too much fallout, and so much more. Management is.... Well I don't even have a word to describe it, it was that bad. I was a top performer and locked at least 25 a month and would fund maybe 10. You have to lock 35 loans to get the 15 fundings needed for top payout tier. Encompass is embarrassing and takes way too long, rates are not competitive and you are required to ask for pricing exceptions to lock any loans. Literally all of your loans will need this. They do absolutely zero marketing so the leads are never organic and wait times between calls on a good day is 45 mins but normally it's about 2 hours. Dispatch is awful and gives you people who tell them flat out they don't want to talk or cannot talk at that moment but they don't care. They're supposed to warm transfer but they blind transfer and management will blame the LO. If you don't disposition the lead correctly, $500 bucks (just remembered that one) and just the overall vibe is not any fun. Do yourself a favor and go somewhere else. I got docked for not telling someone in the background that we were on a recorded call but that person was a 4 year old asking for their, "Mommy" and I got $500 taken right outta my pocket. It's a joke. 

I just recently started at this company, i told them that i dont like to jump into new companies due to fundings/commission. They were so nice, told me it was a team environment and they help us to get better during a slump. I was painted this pretty picture after expressing what im looking for as a company. I’ve been here for 3 weeks now and they’re already looking to ways to fire me. I think taking the Covid vaccine should be a personal choice but ever since i told them that im going to hold off they’ve been treating me so differently ever since. I was told that the first 3 months metrics and performance wasnt going to effect me. Some LO’s are still at 0 and they told me they’ll fire me because i don't have enough loans. Also, they give a 6500 bonus that needs to be paid back. If you perform great for 10 months you dont have to pay it back. I needed the money to catch up with some bills bc it takes months to get commission. They’re going to let me go and i have to pay that back and i still haven't even received the entire 6500 but they want me to pay it all back when i barely received 1/4 of it  .. If it was going to be like that i’d never sign it. HUUUGE learning curve, takes 20 mins just to pull credit, they treat you like a child. So many other issues. I’m not the best L.O nor the worst but i definitely give it my 120% every day. I think its so cringe to write a review but i’ve never felt so disrespected by a company. I’ve been told to say certain things and when i do I was written up for it. I’m now in more debt due to them not wanting me there. They treat everyone in the office with great support and ppl who work from home or arent vaccinated get treated poorly. 

Pro--- Benefits are descent. Cons -Management could do better, especially responding to employees when they reach out. It is not cool when one just doesn't respond, or your concern is just pushed under. It is obvious all about numbers and how much money they can make, without taking consideration of the whole picture, somethings the employees don't have control over of how the borrower responds and they should not be held accountable when this happens, and bonus and/or promotion should not be penalized for it. if you can see one is doing their work then you know they are doing the best, don't hold them for something they have no control over. Much is placed on your plate; it is for every changing but pay is not changing. Though they are a newer company, they got to do better in management, work life balance or they will continue to lose good employees, in my time in my time I have seen much leave. **Also, to say this is by far one of the most disappointed employers I have worked for, which cause me to leave my first review of the operation of a company** Other company have been ok where I didn't leave a review, cause you know life happens where you move on, etc. but this company have a much disconnect in how to manage employees and to give credit where credit is due and to show that you truly care about the employees and it's not just about numbers.

 You will not excel here, promotions are only for managers friends, the company give no raises, going on the 5th year with the company and received no raise. When trying to move to another department, no raise, just a lateral move. Collections group has no growth opportunities, it takes years to reach a manager position. The managers treat employees like were in high school, constantly watch and graded on everything you do. Do not settle here and get stuck like me. Apply else where and start your career it’s not worth it. I’ve waited and waited to move around within the company with no luck. What you know and your background doesn’t matter. Here it’s about who you know. Managers make it hard for you to move around within the company, will do what they can to stop your move. Look away and run away from this place. The work is beyond stressful and the company doesn’t offer any paid leave of absence. Monday’s are mandatory overtime as well as 1st and last day of the month. Rotating Saturday’s with 4 hours overtime, collections group as a whole is hardly ever recognize and we do so much for the company. Especially during the pandemic. Look away and run away from this place you deserve better! 

This company lacks morals in every sense of the word. They tell you there’s lots of opportunities and give you maybe 2 weeks of training and send you off. Their “great” training program involves a week and a half of training and 2 days watching someone work. Easy job, but they don’t go over all the little details about the job until you’re working and they’re on you about every little mistake. I’ve never seen management this terrible. They degrade you and simply don’t treat you like a person. The managers are incompetent and belittle their agents, constantly putting teammates against each other rather than encouraging the team. It is a sales position, and it will wear you out. Even if you’re the best, the company will find something wrong. They don’t seem to want to stop the high turn over rate, it’s as though they want people to quit so they don’t have to pay out the bonuses that they dangle in front of your face to get you to overwork yourself for them. You could lock 500 locks in a month and they will be on you about the 5 people who weren’t interested and why you marked them as “not interested” even though they told you multiple times they were not interested. 

I went through the college recruiting/training program and eventually ended up as mortgage loan officer. I'm hard pressed to find anything positive to say about PennyMac--the culture is ruthlessly competitive, but not even in an intelligent or productive way. You are constantly shamed for not working yourself to the bone by staying to 8pm each night and working every weekend. Management harasses you endlessly about sales targets without providing any meaningful feedback for improvement. Also, if you were inactive and not taking calls for more than 5 minutes you could expect a message from your manager. The only thing that PennyMac has going for it (at least at the time in the refinance boom) was the compensation. They were offering new college graduates with minimum or zero sales experience a genuine opportunity to earn a 6-figure income. However, in spite of all that, PennyMac could not hold onto people for the life of them and turnover was (and I am sure still is) through the roof. That alone says pretty much all you need to know about working for this company.

Office culture was great, everyone on my floor got along and there was a genuine appreciation for each other. It wasn't cutthroat like at other places. Management was decent, but definitely had places to improve. There is a lot of nepotism and personal connection within upper management, and not all of them have the merit to be where they are. I know team managers better equipped to run departments than some of the channel managers.
Upper management gets paid on the number of credit pulls their loan officers get from customers, and locked interest rates on a completed application. Because of this, management instills a constant pressure on the loan officers to pull credit on potential customers (even when the customer has stated they don't have FICO above 600 OR they called about a loan or program Pennymac doesn't offer...not good business practices)
Earnings potential is huge, but requires a TON of after hours work to become achievable. If your performance metrics aren't up to par, they quickly will issue warnings and move towards termination. 

You are an at-will employee so they can terminate you at any time.

I was hired through their college development program for loan officers and resigned after 14 months of working here. The pay was very good, but there are mandatory weekend shifts I wasn’t told about during the hiring process, as well as forced overtime during the week.  The leads have steadily gotten worse as rates have trended upward, and management is constantly pushing you to originate loans that are not in the best interest of the customer so that managers can hit their production targets.   The dispatch team also cold calls customers and transfers them to the loan officers without telling the customer what the purpose for the call was, makes for a very odd conversation.  As far as pay goes, you get a roughly 30k base and you’re paid a flat rate per loan with production modifiers based off of the amount of fundings per month.  I’d say this is a good foot in the door job to the mortgage industry, but once you get an understanding of it, do yourself a favor and move over to purchase or another company that pays basis points per loan. 

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Loan officer 14 salaries reported	$139,643 per year
Loan specialist 4 salaries reported	$21.46 per hour
Financial analyst 7 salaries reported	$74,286 per year
Analyst 9 salaries reported	$69,694 per year
Customer service representative 3 salaries reported	$21.82 per hour

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