Poor management, poor business decisions and poor treatment of employees - Anonymous employee First Cal Employee Review

1.0
1 May 2016
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

The computer system they use for origination and underwriting is awesome! But that's all that's good. I made friends there only to have my heart broke.

Cons

This company has high turnover and they cannot seem to keep good employees. All of the employees who were integral to the success to the company have been laid off or were basically forced to quit. They will throw you under the bus for anything and no one takes any responsibility. Instead of saying it's not my fault, it would just take a few minutes to correct what was wrong. And if anyone disagrees with sales watch out! It's all about sales and they won't hesitate to set you up to fail and boot you out the first chance they get. I never had benefits there since they're expensive. Time off is 2 weeks vacation and 1 week sick. They also will not give raises. You may even try to move up in a better position and then they make you lose all bonus or extra pay you were receiving just to keep you down. I would not work there again. When they let people go they just put them on a cattle phone call, tell everyone on the call they are fired with no severance and to have a nice day! After working so hard for a company, to not even get a call from your manager (even if they are gonna give you some bull about a "business decision") is just tasteless. If you are going to work here BEWARE and don't invest your heart because as soon as you speak up-bye bye.

Explore other reviews about First Cal

5.0
11 May 2023
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Excellent people, fantastic culture, made life long friends.

Cons

Pay, no flexibility with work from home option.

5.0
7 Aug 2017
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Not sure why there are so many bad reviews. From a Sales perspective this company has been excellent. Very fast underwrite turn times. Very fast closing and funding. Very competitive interest rates and fees. In the Arizona market we are extremely competitive compared to local companies. The culture at First Cal is a sales culture and they do everything in their power to help the sales team. Underwriting is very easy to work with and we have not had many issues. If an issue does arise they take a common sense approach and keep "feelings" out of it. I have worked for some larger companies ie: Guaranteed Rate, Stearns Lending, GMAC and others over the past 15+ years where I have been originating loans and I have not been as happy as I am here. I have funded every loan I have ever submitted to underwriting at 1st Cal, not including loans that were cancelled by the buyer during the inspection period. First Cal also has great technology. The online mortgage application is excellent. Much better than the application we had at a previous employer.

Cons

I cannot think of any. There were some people that were cons and they no longer work at the company.

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