Salary Contract Negotiations

Salary Contract Negotiations

Columbia University

Salary Contract Negotiations

        From 2001-2009 I worked for a small startup mortgage company as a compliance officer were the majority of my job revolved around matching clients with programs that would fit their credit scores, financial needs, and bank guidelines. Loan Originators (or loan officers as they were called) would call my cubicle with a scenario, and I would determine what program their client would qualified for and instruct the LO how to structure the deal so when it went to processing it would be approved. It was tedious work, and after a few months, I became very proficient in matching clients with loans, so I was moved to the processing department. This was a far cry from the independence and income I was promised when I relocated from Oklahoma to NJ shortly after leaving Active Duty Service and enlisting in the National Guard. Still, I began to process loans in another cubicle making barely 40k a year and having most of my interactions with the outside world through a telephone. After about six months, my boss decided to send me to underwriting school, Loan Origination training and processing school, a total of 6 weeks, something that at the time was utterly unheard off in the industry. After, months of learning to match programs to borrowers, processing loans, and being sent off to school I came back and was handed 500 business cards and told I would now be an LO. How senseless it seemed to be sitting at a desk doing meaningless work, being sent off to school only to be told I would be doing origination not processing, program matching, or underwriting. When I started selling mortgages, I realized the brilliance of this strategy as I was far better prepared than most LO's and understood mortgage lending inside and out. Within three years I was a branch manager and two years later a Managing Director in charge of 92M dollars and a staff of 48 employees while running the international division. 

        In 2009 I decided to go back into full-time service as a recruiter and left the mortgage industry behind, having made hundreds of thousands of dollars I felt it was not worth the time and hours spent away from my children. I was tired, burned out, and recruiting offered regular hours, decent income, and 30 days’ vacation a year while working seven minutes from home and being able to attend all of my kids' school activities. 

March 25th a friend of mine, former recruiter, and recently departed service member contacted me and invited me to "lunch and learn" at a new mortgage startup bank. He had been trying to convince me since I retired to get back in the business and I politely continued to refuse. This invitation I accepted because I was curious about the bank he had been raving about, he would be the Director of Sales, and I wanted to show my support, but at the very least it was free lunch and some drinks with a friend. I politely listened to the presentation which was well put together and became intrigued by their corporate structure as well as the background of the CEO and CSO. I was asked a few questions by both the executives, and we had a pleasant conversation after the event at which time I bid farewell and went home.