Company: J-P-Morgan
Date: 2014-05-10
Overall rating: 1/5
Employment status: current
Experience level: Junior

Mortgage Banking Credit Underwriter Program- Phoenix, AZ
Pros: Pros are ability to do NOTHING for weeks and management would not say a word. 90% of people in my department would be doing nothing for 8 hours a day and management would not say a thing. Sitting in your cube and looking at the Amazon, Ebay, shoe sales, concerts or anything else to make your day better was the SOP. 

Benefits and pay are good. Everyone out of 60 people who worked in my department was there because of cash. The SOP saying was: "I am here because nobody else would pay me the money I am making here for doing this kind of work". You had senior people who benefited from past pay adjustments and were making $100k+ for basically data entry work. Yes you make the money, but you are brain dead for 5 days out of the week. Your co-workers have no ambition and only come to work for that pay check, nobody is even trying to move up or out.

Work life balance is good, hence why the job is appealing to older people with families. Work schedule is pretty flexible and people can come and go as they please.
Cons: Where do I start?

1) Abysmal training.
2) Non-existent possibility to move up or out of the department. Underwriting is the apex of the mortgage organization, and you skills are extremely specific. So moving up or out is nearly impossible.
3) Toxic and lifeless office environment. It is a basic cube farm, with no new ideas. You have your "checklist", "excel calculators" and that is it. You enter data and do that 1000 times over every day. 
4) Lack of transferable skills. Once you get into underwriting, that becomes your skill. It is an extremely narrow field, so after a few years of doing the job you are basically stuck. To move out, you have to start at the bottom again.