NewRez, the mortgage lending and servicing company that opened a Jacksonville office in December, is looking for recent college graduates to participate in an early career training program.
“The Lab” is a mortgage trainee program designed to teach those with little to no mortgage experience about the industry, help them receive certifications and prepare them for a career in the field.
“We’re teaching them the fundamentals of the business,” said NewRez Regional Manager Stacy Blair.
“For most people, they don’t understand how complex the mortgage business is and what they think should be an easy process is very complicated and there are a lot of moving parts to it. Mortgage basics are going to be a lot of their training.”
In November, NewRez hired 16 trainees for the program. The second class of 30 employees will start Jan. 25.
The company has about 125 employees in Jacksonville. Blair said the goal is to have 200 to 300 in the office at 7785 Baymeadows Way in the Reflections Office Park.
NewRez opened its first Jacksonville office at 301 W. Bay St. Downtown in March after an asset acquisition of mortgage lender Ditech, which operated in the same space. It hired 90 former Ditech employees to staff the center.
NewRez announced in August 2020 it would open another Jacksonville service center in August with plans to hire at least 100 employees by the fall in mortgage sales, loan processing, underwriting, collections, recruiting, training and information technology positions.
There are no requirements for the program, but a college degree is preferred. Those with call center, financial services or sales experience would be a good fit, he said.
“We look at all of those aspects and we look for people who are looking for a new career and are high energy, very competitive,” Blair said.
Blair said NewRez is working with area colleges and universities to encourage students to apply. So far, Blair said “quite a few” have applied from the hospitality and travel industries looking to start a new career.
Starting salary for The Lab positions is $35,000 to $40,000 a year plus overtime and bonus potential.
Once employees graduate from the program, which lasts between 12 and 18 months, they could move into a higher-paying position depending on their performance.
Blair said the goal is to find people who will become longtime NewRez employees. In his experience running similar programs, Blair said that is often the case. He worked in mortgage and home lending with EverBank and TIAA Bank since 1997 before joining NewRez in August.
“They value what you’ve given them, an opportunity to do training, so they become very tenured, long-term employees,” he said. “This is an opportunity for them to grow into management and other areas.”
With more people wanting to buy houses in the past several months, Blair said NewRez has been busy and is looking to hire more employees.
“We’re upping our capacity to help consumers by bringing more people on,” he said.
“This is the fastest way. There are only so many people available to us right now with mortgage experience. And so this is a real opportunity for us to broaden that pool of potential candidates.”
Those interested can apply at www.newrez.com/careers.
