Having any sort of advantage in the workplace can help catapult you into success. At UWM (United Wholesale Mortgage), I was fortunate to have the opportunity to experience the Business Innovation Group (BIG) program that gave me with the experience to fully understand the life of the loan and how it impacts each role in this company. In this blog, we’ll to dive into the benefits of starting within the BIG program versus being hired into a specific role.
What Is the Business Innovation Group?
UWM is the #1 mortgage lender in the nation, making the dream of homeownership come true. The Business Innovation group is a collective group of diverse professionals that have a goal to implement performance enhancers for each team at UWM that directly and indirectly impacts the loan process within the company. The BIG program allows the selected team members the opportunity to rotate through every team in the company for one year and offers a hands-on experience through the life of the loan. It allows team members to study and provide feedback on processes to help improve each of the roles that play a part in making UWM the #1 mortgage lender.
Once the program is complete, the BIGs are assigned to a team at UWM. Their placement is determined based on the skills they’ve displayed during their rotations the business needs and where their strengths and experience would best be applied.
Why Is BIG Important?
At UWM, continuous improvement is essential to our long-term success, and the BIG program is a prime example of this. BIG is designed to bring fresh eyes into various areas of our business and industry, helping to identify areas of opportunity while fully immersing themselves within the weeds of the business. In turn, this prepares any BIG team member with the proper tools to help make an impact.
Coming out of the BIG program is beneficial in many ways for your new career. It allows you to experience roles you may never have known existed or find a new passion during the rotations. Most of all, one of the biggest takeaways from the BIG program is the network that it helps you build with everyone from executive leadership to business operations.
Having a resource in each lane of business is something that speaks for itself, and this alone can take you places you wouldn’t have thought were possible. Once the BIG experience is over and your specialized role begins, you have the knowledge, experience, and network to set you on the road to success.
How I’ve Benefitted From BIG
Right from the start, being a BIG showed its perks. Starting with a new company and not knowing others can make settling in a challenge. However, the BIG program allowed me to network with my team members, making me comfortable with my new team prior to the start of our first day, which made onboarding easier. This, in turn, gave me an idea of the culture at UWM and helped set me up for success going forward.
During one of the rotations, we were asked to help UWM reach the company goal of 83% happiness in Client Request responses. My team was asked to develop a strategy to help achieve this goal, and with the network that was built during the BIG program, it was easier to gain feedback and opinions from those who deal with CRs daily to help with this objective. We found ourselves reaching out and asking for feedback from former team members who we worked with in past rotations on how our new process ideas would work and the logic behind them. Having a large network in your back pocket to help answer questions, is a BIG advantage.
Looking back on the BIG program, I didn’t expect how much this program would impact me outside of UWM. I have learned a lot about my character and my brand, along with the opportunities that lay within them. A large part of the BIG program is gaining feedback after each rotation. I am thankful for this feedback I received on how I can improve going forward because I probably wouldn’t haven’t been given this opportunity to grow anywhere else. I find myself having better conversations with friends and family, putting myself out there more often and getting comfortable with being uncomfortable.
The BIG program is the best way to get a full understanding of UWM and the life of the loan before diving into a UWM career. I feel well prepared and confident for my assigned role and am excited to see where this new knowledge will take me. The things I’ve learned and the people I have met will go beyond UWM, and for this I’m very fortunate.
If you’re ready to start a career or thinking about a career switch and would be interested in applying to the Business Innovation Group, join our team.