I have been reading quite a few of this reports regarding the McLender "Quicken Loans". After some time to think, I've decided to voice my experience at Quicken without any censorship. I feel it's important for everyone to understand exactly what this company stands for, and more importantly, what their entire business model rests upon.
The truth about Quicken is, from my experience, that their business model relys upon the ability to hire up to 300-400 people at a time, send them through orientation, split them into a few groups, run them through a training (read: brainwashing) process, weed out those new hires that exhibit free thought or the ability to reason and understand standards of ethics, and fire the rest of the unfortunate souls into "the floor".
This ominous "floor" is simply a massive array of cubicles where, during the blocks of time there are calls being made/taken, chaos reigns. People (read: kids) shout and holler, objects are thrown, people are running around, etc. I've seen this for myself... Those of you who aren't in the know will need to take my word for it. Ask someone else who's worked there before, they'll tell you.
But the real beauty of this room is that this is where the magic happens. Here, there are standards of practice that simply cannot be found most anywhere else. Well, maybe at places like Enron, Tyco, Adelphia cable, Worldcom-MCI, Global Crossing... You get the idea. The truth is, at Quicken Loans, it does matter what the client (read: sucker) thinks about the mortgage industry or what they need! The "mortgage expert" that has been trained to suck that client dry will "discuss their goals and make sure they are in the best possible spot!"... Which basically is a cryptic way of saying the banker is going to carefully position himself BEHIND the client and begin to "service the account".
To put it bluntly, Quicken Loans exhibits something I consider Corporate Terrorism. And yeah, I'm going to explain what I mean by that:
At Q, you are first instructed at the orientation that you need to be a "free thinker" and to "think at a high level" and never accept something if it is wrong. Then, after orientation, you are placed in training (read: brainwashing) where you are told to NEVER bend ANYTHING you are taught there. If you slip even slightly outside the boundry of what you are being told to do, it is considered a MASSIVE issue. This is where my story comes in...
A week ago, I was 1 minute late. One. Yes, one. I was a minute late one day, and a few (maybe 4) minutes late the second day. Every day prior and after that, I was at least 30 minutes early to work and stayed over an hour later, but usually more like 2 or 3. I was hauled into an empty office by my trainer and some other guy who had been helping him train us, and was berated by him for my "inability to adhere to the high standards of practice expected of me a Quicken Loans.". I was simply in shock. Then, I was informed this meeting was pertaining to a exam score from my first test in training, which I did poorly on but did a re-take and got a 95%. I was told it didn't matter that I learned from it because I needed to already know that stuff. Strange, huh? Then I was given a two-page document informing me that I was being a very naughty mortgage lemming and was instructed to sign and date the document at the bottom. I did so, foolishly.
After giving the entire experience some thought, I returned to work the next day... 90 minutes early. Heh. I began reviewing for another exam, reading my email, checking voicemail, etc... And later in the morning I decided to ask those two trainers to explain to me both why I had to sign a document that had vague claims of poor work and why the document had some items listed on it that I simply had no part of! I made it a point to be professional and tactful, asking what I had been doing wrong so that I may correct it and blah blah blah. I was brushed off, told that "late was late, no matter by how much time you're late" and the meeting ended rather anti-climactically.
Hours later, I was taken into an office and fired for the exact same reasons I was spoken to the day before. This is not a joke, nor am I leaving out details. The simple fact of the matter is this: Q takes advantage of the LOs that give their sweat and effort for the job, and gives them peanuts as compensation.
Do not work there! Potential clients beware!
As a personal note: The objectors to these testimonials, usually bearing names like Lola (company inside joke) or Jay (exec at the company), are probably not the best inside information to support Q's cause. Think for yourself... Or to use the common "ism" or philosophy shoved down your throat during training: "Do the right thing!"
Maybe that's just what needs to be done. The right thing. Give it a try, Dan. And while your at it, how about those over-time hours? Guess what? You owe me too, buddy!
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