CapCenter Reviews

3.5

56% would recommend to a friend

(111 total reviews)
avatar

Gary Piacentini

65% approve of CEO

48% positive business outlook

CapCenter has an employee rating of 3.5 out of 5 stars, based on 111 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The CapCenter employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Finance industry (3.7 stars).

Reviews by job title

111 reviews
2.0
Sep 15, 2021

Not what anyone is expecting...

Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

To start, a general business model of "zero closing costs" to undercut giant, well-established, lenders is a recipe to create a working environment to the likes of a "sweat shop". An enormous amount of volume is required to be moved to account for the razor thin margins the company operates off of. Also, utilizing a market wide, COVID-related, rate drop to over-leverage yourself into rapidly financing expansion markets after being a VA only lender, is another formula that results in high potential for default or acquisition. I only say this as a response to their unanticipated meager start to the newly established purchase side of the operation. Hopefully rates don't hike and the Refi "layups" dry up, as there wont be much to catch the fall... I began my time at CapCenter as an eager post-grad looking to get a foot in the door into finance. I saw many over qualified individuals in the same or similar position and it only further verified the slouch in the post-COVID job market. It was exciting to start training and earn my MLO license, but all of the eager beavers that I started with soon realized that the training program you are in is likely one of their first groups, as any coworkers that had been with the company for over 10 months did not receive any training at all. It was an empty shell and the week you spend in RVA is predominantly a quiet study hall to review material for your MLO exam. Once the predominantly remote training concludes, you are ramped up much faster than you anticipate. Quite frankly, much more quickly than your managers anticipate as well, as I'd assume they did not expect the astronomical turnover rate that was seen in all of the expansion markets within the last 12 months. Here is the exact experience I have seen from the last 2-3 groups of Loan Analysts coming through expansion markets: Analyst's pipelines are quickly ramped up following training, other loan analysts (in the same office or your neighbor's) will realize they can't take it anymore and leave (many times with out any notice. Literally same day. Will not show up and text their manager at EOD), and the remaining LAs are left to absorb these pipelines to complete on top of their own, which were already bulging. Overtime is heavily restricted. Even if you push to work long hours, the overtime incentive is only there to be used as a marketing ploy to make fruitless attempts to replace the LAs who drop like flies (majority between 2-6 months). There are a many expansion offices that have not held a loan analyst for more than 8 months and most are much less than that. Pressure from upper management is squeezing regional and branch managers to the point where the lowly Loan Analysts and Consultants are thrown further into the pressure cooker. I have seen many over qualified, extremely hardworking individuals scramble to find new opportunities and take the hit of being labeled a potential "job hopper", just to get out. Saying morale is low office-wide is an understatement, as coworkers and I have had serious talks about deterioration of mental health. Management is no support net either, as they are constantly looking to cover their tails, likely because the vast majority have been there for under a year.

Cons

Hopefully this review isn't coming off as sour or resentful, as that is not my intention. There are a few pros that I must include as well. There are some great people that will be dredging through the mud right with you. You will likely develop friendships with coworkers, that extend outside of the office, as the vast majority will be your age. Getting to meet these people is one of the few bright points of this role. Another is that you will be forced to learn very quickly without much support. You will learn to utilize many outside resources to support your growth and "CYA" is a motto you will live by... but hey, you will get your MLO license for free (if you don't fail and they politely ask you to leave). This is my first, and potentially last review, and the main reason I am writing it is because I share the same view as the vast majority of my coworkers and I really wish I would have had more insight regarding the company as a whole before onboarding. But if you need the job, good luck!

2.0
Jun 22, 2022

Cyclical

Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

When business is good, very high growth and learning opportunities. Fast paced. Decent value for the clients.

Cons

Poor training and ongoing managerial support. When rates were low, we were expected to work at double capacity for months on end. Forced back to the office with essentially no hybrid flexibility. Saw no benefit when business was booming, but massive layoffs as soon as business dries up. "My profits but our losses". Half hearted, standard issue- corporate compassion from HR. Repeating the mission statement over and over means nothing when followed by nothing.

1.0
Jul 1, 2022

Would not recommend

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Sometimes room for growth but there is limited training in all positions Savings for clients? Possibly, but they view this as more important than their employees.

Cons

I wish I had pros to say, but unfortunately my experience had led me to never recommend this company. To start, training is limited in all positions and many managers are rather new and also had limited on-the-job training and no managerial training. Half the time, you didn't even know who your manager was because it was always changing. You never knew how you were performing because you kept getting swapped and they would base reviews strictly off of numbers rather than looking at full work responsibilities. Someone else mentioned this company as a "sweat shop" and I could agree. During COVID, things were busy (fair) but driving people into the ground is exhausting. Zero work life balance. Company culture is some of the worst I have seen. Going into the office each day, people were miserable, morale was low and no one wanted to talk to each other. I will say, this stemmed from upper management and trickled down. It is a constant blame game from upper management rather than taking responsibility for things that went poorly. There was no support and every time you spoke up against something, you were quickly shot down or retaliated against, which made motivation diminish. You never feel valued as an employee. There is also a lack of transparency to stakeholders within the company and decisions were always made suddenly without logic, or on the fly which led to disasters down the line. You are CONSTANTLY being micromanaged. For example, if you signed off 5 minutes early, you would be questioned why - even if you finished your work. As someone else mentioned, employee retention rates and turnover will tell you exactly what you need to know to understand the poor company culture. The handling of COVID in my opinion was poor. Managers still expected individuals to work from home, even though they weren't feeling well. Managers didn't even offer taking sick days and it was awkward when you asked. Time-off - Average amount of time-off per year but people wouldn't even use the full amount because when you came back, your work was a mess. At first, there wasn't even a plan for out of office for people to take on your workload, which made it near impossible to feel comfortable taking time off. Many workers were laid off in March 2022 due to changes in the market (somewhat understanding, can happen at any company) except for the fact that they hired like crazy and opened up many new locations and then just laid many people off. The worst part? They were hiring or promoting people for these roles after laying people off.... Pay is low in comparison to other companies and raises each year don't happen. If you are promoted, you get a raise in comparison to your prior role. This is HR's "selling point" that employees who get promoted should be happy they received a raise. A raise for a promotion is part of switching jobs, and then needs to be maintained for the workload in future years. Not, well they made more money being promoted. The bonus structure discussed in the hire process is not reliable at all - When deciding to accept a job offer, consider half or less of the bonus vs what they try to sell you on. You may see a lot of positive reviews here - For a long time the company struggled with low glassdoor reviews and started asking employees to hop on and share a good experience.

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Glassdoor has 113 CapCenter reviews submitted anonymously by CapCenter employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if CapCenter is right for you.