Career in loan underwriting? Is it a good paying career?
What do y’all think about getting into a loan underwriting career? I was reached out to by CoreVest for a loan underwriting position. If they give me an offer, should I take it? Would it be a good career?

I’m in loan servicing/debt AM and it sucks. I work like 2 hours a day and just play games. Not learning anything and so bored. I’ve been trying to find AM roles but had no luck.
[{"id": "hsjvz3q", "text": "You\u2019re only working 2 hours a day? (From home I assume?) go back to school get a certificate or some courses in udemy. Sharpen your skills and use your time wisely. Then, apply to other jobs", "replies": [{"id": "hsjxvsu", "text": "So is loan underwriting not a good career then?", "replies": [{"id": "hskyd44", "text": "loan underwriting is a lot of work. It doesn't matter what area (debt, equity, brokerage), you'll grind numbers all day. Evaluate (underwrite) many many deals, most of them will not pencil out, and in the trash they go. \n\n90+ hours a week at an analyst level, and they don't pay that well.", "replies": [{"id": "hskzj92", "text": "Wow 90 hours? That is not worth it", "replies": [{"id": "hslge98", "text": "Well, up to 90 hours I should say, in busy season, you can easily pull an all-nighter on a deliverable. mostly, your boss will work on a purely commission basis, so he will be the most interested in making deals.  That's in a brokerage shop. \n\nOn the equity side it can be less intense, but still grinding numbers on almost every deal that fits the fund criteria.", "replies": [{"id": "hslmw2d", "text": "Sent you a quick question on messages brotha.", "replies": [], "depth": 6}], "depth": 5}], "depth": 4}, {"id": "hu2w7bn", "text": "This is definitely not true from my experience at doing CRE deals at a bank, not even close.", "replies": [], "depth": 4}], "depth": 3}], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}, {"id": "hsjymzl", "text": "I'm a UW/PM for a commercial bank. Pay isn't great ($90k/yr. base + bonus) relative to the amount of hours put in and the demands placed on you (I understand it varies bank-to-bank and market-to-market). It is a largely thankless job. Depending on what bank you work for there is always merger fear hoovering over making job security a concern.  Plus, a lot of banks still want people slaving away in a cube even though the job can easily be done with a flex schedule or full-time WFH. So, good luck finding work outside of a major metro area.", "replies": [{"id": "hsk0b1k", "text": "How would you describe the work life balance? How many hours do you put in daily?", "replies": [], "depth": 2}, {"id": "hsl737o", "text": "What is UW/PM?", "replies": [{"id": "hsm0g54", "text": "Underwriter / portfolio manager. Different titles for the same job depending on the bank.", "replies": [], "depth": 3}], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}, {"id": "hsky59n", "text": "You can def make good money UW for a multifamily agency lender (100k+ with 3-4 years experience, 200k+ 8-10 years), but I was out on that space after seeing how thankless it is. That said UW is a great path to a production team or parlaying to an equity role if you can market your experience effectively.", "replies": [{"id": "hskz8m8", "text": "What do you mean by thankless? That money sounds nice. Also, is UW in RE better than insurance?", "replies": [{"id": "hsleogp", "text": "Thankless as in always being bound by productions expectations. For example, production aggressively quotes proceeds and timing on a 10 property portfolio for an institutional borrower, UWs ultimately \u201cmake the numbers work\u201d, draft the credit approval memos (150+ page pdf for a deal like that), and conduct due diligence while doing the same for multiple other production teams and get 0% of the origination fee", "replies": [{"id": "hslf63f", "text": "At the end of the day UW for a lender is somewhat back office and while the comp is good, it pales to the originators- for good reason (they bring the deal in). Have fond memories of 12AM emails of the $200k \u201cvp\u201d underwriters and immediately wondering how anyone at 40 with kids at home could be happy doing that", "replies": [{"id": "hslg1i2", "text": "And obviously talking about RE lending- have no clue how the insurance space works. I\u2019d imagine insurance UW is much less finance intensive given in RE debt when sizing a max debt proceeds off LTV or DSCR your basically calculating a break even asset value in the event of foreclosure", "replies": [], "depth": 5}], "depth": 4}], "depth": 3}], "depth": 2}, {"id": "hslxulo", "text": "What do you think about the screening team at agency shops? Is their pay better or worse than UW? What do you think about their overall quality of life compared to UW?", "replies": [], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}, {"id": "hsl4kdw", "text": "I worked at a commercial bank 8-6 making $74k/year. And they wanted us back in the office 5x a week post covid. I left and took a client facing role. You can get stuck as an underwriter forever and it\u2019s thankless work, unless you purposely take steps to move into a client facing role. It can be a good stepping stone but it takes a certain personally (think accountant) to enjoy all the number crunching and basically being treated like an expense. I don\u2019t discourage it, but make sure you know your career path.", "replies": [{"id": "hsl7p3l", "text": "Man that does not sound fun. Maybe i won\u2019t take the job if they offer. What is an example of a client facing role?", "replies": [{"id": "hso92l6", "text": "portfolio/relationships manager", "replies": [], "depth": 3}], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}, {"id": "hsl7skn", "text": "Cmbs is great pay, bulge bank you can come out of college making $200k easily. Work life sucks, I don\u2019t have a life but that\u2019ll change soon. Leaving.", "replies": [{"id": "hsl8v2m", "text": "In what world are you making 200k right out of college doing CMBS underwriting..", "replies": [{"id": "hsl9ies", "text": "What does it usually pay and is WLB good or bad?", "replies": [{"id": "hsl9rd8", "text": "I\u2019m an analyst and right out of school I\u2019d say the range is 60-70k with a 10-20% bonus\n\nEdit: work life will depend on the firm and the asset class. I\u2019m in agency and it is sometimes a hard 9-5 and sometimes I\u2019m like you and work like 3 hours a day", "replies": [{"id": "hslaw6p", "text": "Are you an UW Analyst? What are you trying to do long term?", "replies": [{"id": "hsle2xn", "text": "Yeah And let\u2019s just say I\u2019m not trying to do underwriting long term.\n\nIt can be a good career and Im very fond of some of my superiors that have been doing it long term(and successfully) but it\u2019s not very fulfilling for me. And I\u2019m only 7-8 months out of school. Like one of the earlier comments, I may try to go back to school to break into a client facing role and I think this has been a good start. Not great but definitely will get me in the door in other types of positions in CRE", "replies": [], "depth": 6}], "depth": 5}], "depth": 4}], "depth": 3}, {"id": "hsl9nxf", "text": "Mine. Starting base is $100k+", "replies": [{"id": "hsskb6d", "text": "Some people like you picked superior firms some poeple like the other guy didn't", "replies": [], "depth": 4}], "depth": 3}], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}, {"id": "hsmlm01", "text": "I\u2019m an analyst at a large bank in the CRE UW division. The pay for analysts is $90 base + bonus, but I think the vps and mds in our group make really good money.  I think it\u2019s a really good place to start out learning the business and if you like CRE deals you will like underwriting. I think the issue in large banks is they aren\u2019t very nimble so sometimes it feels like a drag doing all the compliance items.  That being said, the exit ops are great - I just accepted a roll in a Repe firm that I am super excited about - so it\u2019s a great springboard to any other part of CRE", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "hso3os3", "text": "I worked for a super regional bank for five years as a credit analyst. I rose the ranks from a credit analyst, senior credit analyst, then finally underwriting manager. After that, you really hit the ceiling so I opted to start looking for jobs. It took a while given the hot job market but I landed a good capital markets role with a small local developer. My other coworkers have gone on to work for other developers, brokers, other banks, and investment positions. I\u2019d say it sets you up fair for other position but you need to close the experience gap with outside work like taking adventures in CRE modeling course. I will caution you that I worked a lot of hours for not a lot of pay compared to other CRE positions. I got a 25% pay bump and work 10-15 less hours a week after leaving the bank. Happy to answer more questions if you want.", "replies": [{"id": "hspjjqa", "text": "Is credit analyst a good career or just an entry level type of role?", "replies": [], "depth": 2}, {"id": "hswlpxf", "text": "What region of the country are you in?", "replies": [{"id": "hswtc0u", "text": "Denver then moved to Minneapolis halfway through.", "replies": [], "depth": 3}], "depth": 2}, {"id": "hu2wwqx", "text": "Currently work for a bank doing similar stuff to what you were doing, how many hours did you average there? And what would you say you average now?", "replies": [], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}]