Pros
Compensation and certain team members.
Cons
Mortgage industry subject-matter expertise is respected more than domain or discipline expertise. The organization has too many lifers who are unwilling to adapt or change. It takes forever to get critical software approved and you are expected to be grateful for what they can provide for you. You have limited resources as a designer to do your best work, especially when you are being asked to compromise research for the sake of shipping products. Half of the company doesn't even know Fannie Mae has an internal design team, which results in duplicative projects all over the organization that may not even address the real needs of customers. Research is not respected and insights are too biased to be useful. They have product owners who used to be business analysts and they have no idea what they are doing. There are too many cooks in the kitchen on projects and designers have the last seat at the table, if at all. The organization has huge silos within silos and no one communicates. It is VERY hierarchical and executives are more like dictators. They expect designers to be magicians who will help the organization become more customer-centered, but they are unwilling to set them up for success. The issues within the organization are systemic and deeply ingrained in the culture, and it will take a LONG time to establish the conditions necessary for the culture to shift. Some of the senior leaders are incredibly arrogant, direct and impersonal, and the culture can feel very bureaucratic, regimented, and lacklustre at times.