The best times are over, but so are the worst times - Financial Engineer IV Fannie Mae Employee Review

3.0
Nov 7, 2011
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

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.

Explore other reviews about Fannie Mae

5.0
May 25, 2026
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

benefits, pay, work life balance

Cons

no cons to be honest

3.0
Jul 5, 2026
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

I had thought I’d stay there until retirement. Pay was pretty good and while upward mobility was limited there was an open environment for learning and getting involved in new things. The company was socially conscious with volunteer time available. Flex schedules were available with manager approval and that helped us effectively implement work from home in 2020. We did work a lot of long hours to get projects done but the work seemed to be appreciated and rewarded.

Cons

For a company that had been highly profitable, Bill Pulte came in and started demanding changes for the company to be run more like one on the verge of bankruptcy. Managers were forced to spend significant time managing attendance and schedules and constantly justifying staffing just to have that ignored anyway. Anybody below a Director was cut completely out of these decisions meaning managers would show up to meetings to find the no-shows had been let go with no warning. You just started to see on people’s faces they were miserable, many long time associates quietly hoping they’d be included in the next round of cuts. It’s too bad, a company I had thought I’d retire with really just became toxic.

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