Today, loanDepot Founder and CEO Anthony Hsieh announced plans to add almost 1400 new employees, primarily in sales professional roles, to loanDepot’s roster by year’s end. Dynamic growth will be felt in each of the Company’s sales channels; approximately 1000 loan officers will be added in or near loanDepot’s five Direct Lending national campus locations and another nearly 300 will be added in loanDepot’s local Retail branch locations. Other new hires will be integrated into the Company’s Joint Venture and Wholesale channels or in corporate infrastructure roles.

An important source of many of the Company’s new Direct Lending loan officers will be from its proprietary ACES (Accelerated Career in Effective Sales) training program. ACES is a one-of-its kind, company-provided educational framework, offering entry-level candidates seeking a career in financial services, the opportunity for paid mortgage apprenticeship with the Company. The Company is currently scaling this program and accepting an additional 450 ACES candidates in Orange County, Phoenix, Nashville and Dallas through September 1.

“Thanks to our proprietary technology and fully digital end-to-end mello smartloan loan process, loanDepot is entering a period of unprecedented growth and opportunity,” said TJ Freeborn, loanDepot’s SVP of Customer Experience. “To ensure we can continue to serve our customers exceptionally well during this period of dynamic growth, we are adding top-level talent to our team, and, one of the key ways we will do this is via our ACES program. ACES allows us to give really talented, customer-focused individuals an opportunity to have an exceptionally rewarding career in the exciting world of fintech, even if they have no prior experience, all while helping customers achieve the American dream of homeownership.”

“We believe,” continued Freeborn, “there are bright, talented, capable sales people in this country today who are underpaid or undervalued in their current role – and, via ACES, we give these people opportunities each day to reach their full potential, not only from a compensation standpoint, but, most importantly, from a personal fulfillment standpoint, with a brand that customers know, trust and want to do business with.”

In addition to further scaling the ACES training program, the Company will also expand hiring in the following ways:

• Experienced loan officers are being added in loanDepot’s five Direct Lending national campus locations: Orange County, Scottsdale, Dallas, Detroit and Nashville.
• loanDepot’s DirectFlex program, the first employment model of its kind in the industry, is being widened to include those in locations near the Company’s five Direct Lending national campus sites. The DirectFlex program is designed to bridge the gap between career satisfaction, personal performance and work|life integration. Similar to Uber in philosophy, the DirectFlex model allows sales professionals to instantly connect and work anytime, anywhere, on their own schedule and terms and creates a virtual alternative to traditional brick and mortar financial services employment.
• In addition to the noted Direct Lending hiring, Retail Channel growth is expected as well. As many as 300 experienced Retail loan officers will be added across loanDepot’s 200+ local branch locations before the year is out.

“loanDepot has long been known as an innovator,” said Freeborn. “Experienced sales professionals are certainly the core of our business model and our industry. That being said, our vision of the industry and customer behavior is futuristic and expansive. In order to deliver service at the proper levels, we must think about things differently.”

“DirectFlex is a perfect example of that innovative thinking,” continued Freeborn. “Not everyone can be tied to an office and a 40-hour a week job. But Uber doesn’t have the market cornered on the gig economy – with DirectFlex, we’ve created a model wherein someone can work where and when it makes sense for them, receiving leads and warm transfers each day, while making a great living along the way.”

SOURCE loanDepot