Job Responsibilities
Researching and correcting missing or misapplied payments.
Reissuing payments. Maintaining current figures in databases.
All times for each will always vary depending on volume. This is
a support function.
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Job Requirements
Generally, only a high school education is needed but employees
that are consistently learning more and maintain an excellent
work ethic are usually considered a valuable asset to the
company. There are on-the-job training classes for new employees
and a group of 8 to 10 employees will have a Team Leader who can
answer or assist with any needed training or advice.
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Uppers
The best part of the job is that, for me personally, I am never really bored
with anything. There is always new learning opportunities in the field of
finance and the freedom to express any new ideas that you may have to make a job
function more easier or fun.
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Downers
As in most jobs, the current trend is for more customer contact
and some employees may not like talking to customers who may be
irate for some reason or another. Talking to irate customers can
usually be a way of sharpening our knowledge about our product as
we defend it and provides us with people skills. It is often
necessary to learn to be diplomatic as we try to educate the
consumer about certain laws and requirements when they know they
are not complying with their financial obligations.
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Lifestyle
Since the job is mostly a sedate one where you may be seated for extended
periods of time, Countrywide offers a health workout facility that is open 24
hours a day and 7 days a week year round. There is a 2 mile jogging trail at the
Plano, TX location and the scenery is great when you just want to feel like you
are out in the country with trees and lakes with wildlife.
The work hours can be 7:00am to 4:00, 8:00am to 5:00pm, 9:00am to 6:00pm,
10:00am to 7:00pm. The hours can also be dictated by the type of position in a
particular department.
There is a casual dress code that is strictly enforced. There is no smoking
anywhere inside or outside the premises but there is only a specific place where
people who are addicted to tobacco can smoke. There is no smoking on the way to
the smoking area.
There are recognition awards every week because so many people do enjoy what
they are doing and enjoy the competition and prizes and money.
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Compensation
The base salary seems to vary depending upon one's education and
work experience. I do not have any specific figures for a base
salary because I have no knowledge on the salary structure. I
can say that any potential employee should state a figure from
the standard living wage salary between $30K for single employees
to $40K to married employees. This is from the recent salary
surveys that indicate that married households with a salary of
$40K are in the borderline poverty level and employees with a
salary of $35K are in the povery level. This means my salary of
$31K would rank in the very low poverty level but, I learn to
budget myself and realise that with two degrees (one in
communications and one in engineering) I may eventually find my
job niche and be compensated for my real worth. The other
benefits of Countrywide outweigh the salary compensation. There
are three major restaurants in three of its large buildings and
there is the free 7 or 8 storey parking garage, and an excellent
security patrol and monitoring system to protect the welfare of
the employees and their vehicles.
There are 401-K Plan, Stock Options, and various other retirement
benefit options available. There is full medical, dental, and
vision coverage and paid holidays.
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Advice to Jobseekers
Always stress your strengths and show an avid interest in wanting
to learn more in the finance field. Do understand that the
knowledge gained from Countrywide is invaluable as it also
teaches you how to become a better financial planner in your own
personal life. Do realise that in any job, no matter what
position you have, people will always have times where they may
get tired of doing their job from time to time. Countrywide and
many well-informed companies know this situation well and they
make an effort to do something about. There are many perks
within Countrywide that make the job more rewarding and
gratifying.
Always be open to new changes. As the home mortgage industry
becomes more competitive, it is always necessary to have
employees who are willing to learn new job functions and who are
resilient to demanding challenges. There will always be people
within Countrywide who can help you with the changes as you learn
new methods of performing your own job efficiently.
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