Fannie Mae Reviews

Pros

Stable- maybe? I would rather state that Fannie Mae is a more stable place to work than a year ago. There is an increase in transparency in the way that management communicates and depending on where you go and who you talk to people are beginning to exhale. Remember change is inevitable no matter where you work and as long as you are OK with that fact, then Fannie Mae is a good place to work.

Cons

Healthcare benefits, lack of cost benefit analysis on some decisions, impulsive decision making, pendulum-swinging regulation mentality

Pros

benefits are above average
pay above average

Cons

negative work environment
plays the blame game

Advice to Senior Management

focus on building team work and solutions

Pros

It truly impacts peoples lives by providing support to the US housing finance system. Not sure if 30yr fixed rate mortgage would exist without the company.

Cons

- more like working at government and not a financial services company
- compensation upside does not exist

Pros

Good benefits and competitive salary

Cons

Too much politics And infighting

Advice to Senior Management

Less meetings more action

Pros

Salary and benefits are the most attractive reason to work at Fannie Mae.

Cons

Executive Leadership motives and experience are questionable.

Advice to Senior Management

Hire more competent senior leaders who will act inthe best interest of the Firm as opposed to personal interest.

Pros

The employees make more than government scale employees.

Cons

Morale is horrible, there is a constant threat of being laid off, superior performance does not guarantee you a job, there is not vision or direction for the company. Seasoned employees are not respected and are being pushed out if the company.

Advice to Senior Management

Leave the company and let us bring in new blood.

Pros

Salary is exceptional but they'll make you earn it with little to no work life balance. Executives publicy stating that they do not want to manage their IT any longer and want to outsource their IT divisions.

Cons

If you want to routinely work 80+ hours per week, sometimes 24+ hours straight, 8+ days in a row w/o a day off, with no respect for holidays and weekends then you should find this a good fit.

Advice to Senior Management

Your IT infrastructure and applications are collapsing due to the poorly executed transition to managed services. As you dump your IT employees you fail to recognize the importance of their business domain knowledge and how all applications integrate together. These folks play a much more vital role to the company than they are recognized for.

Pros

Pay and benefits. Flexible work environment. Intelligent work force. Good telework solutions.

Cons

Uncertain future. Recurring layoffs. Overly political. Lack of rewards and recognition. Culture of fear. Difficulty making decisions. Lack of accountability at management level. Lack of employee value. Hostile HR partners.

Advice to Senior Management

Develop a game plan for the company. Value your employees as a valuable resource, not a number and/or a problem.

Pros

The purpose of FANNIE MAE (contrary to public opinion) is essential to the health of our economy.
There are some individuals passionate about the purpose and remain comitted to doing what's right.
For a long time, FANNIE MAE was well funded for IT projects and initiatives; its a shame, since so much was squandered in the wrong directions.

Cons

The TECHNOLOGY division is filled with both inexperienced and incompetent individuals. The resources are highly inbred, so the dysfunction is challenging to address.
Violations of standards and policy is rampant, excused away by a sense of entitlement or expediency. I suspect most of it is based on inexperience.
I have never seen so many MANAGERS act unprofessionally during meetings, seeking to conceal their incompetence.
They are steadily outsourcing IT functions to managed service providers; while unfortunate for some, quality employees, this is the merciful method to address the problems.

Advice to Senior Management

The toughest challenges are still to come. The course will be difficult to maintain, but outsourcing has the consequence of removing much good flesh with the gangerous. You're replacing one problem with a myriad of others.
Have you considered that middle and upper management is the REAL cause of the issues? Some of the most tenured employees are the source of your challenges.

Pros

Before the financial crisis, this was a great place to work at, great compensation, great benefits, good work-life balance. The housing downturn hit hard and - while being an interesting place to be in, in the middle of the fight - the stress and uncertainty levels shot through the roof.

Those who can weather the storm could very well be rewarded in the end. Fannie Mae might go away in its current form, but cannot disappear.

Interesting place to work from a professional point of view, if you care about credit and valuation models. The benefits are great and compensation is decent. For the Washington, DC area the alternatives are slim.

Cons

Uncertainty about the future, layoffs after layoffs, politics.

Very fat middle-management layer. Everyone pushes to be a director, since in a non-management role you can hit the ceiling fairly quickly. Having a deeper non-management track would go a long way towards solving this and hanging on to the quality people who actually do the work, not just talk about it.

Advice to Senior Management

Keep cutting costs by trimming the fat, define and implement a solid non-management track and the diamond shape will go away.