In this Tech Careers Q&A Cathy Mattax, director of Corporate Information Services (CIS) at Fannie Mae, discusses her company's in-house tech training program. Mattax is responsible for division-wide staffing strategies and serves as a central resource for budgeting, planning, and financial management and control for the CIS division.

"Our mission," says Mattax, "is to provide and expand homeownership opportunities for all Americans, and as we grow, we rely more and more on technological advances to help us manage our business." As a result, Fannie Mae, the nation's largest mortgage lender with $1 trillion in assets, has one of the country's largest information technology departments, employing as many as 1,200 full-time technical workers and up to 300 consultants on a regular basis – fully a third of the workforce.

Q: How has technology changed the way you do business?

Cathy Mattax: Fannie Mae develops technology that enhances the speed, accuracy and efficiency of the mortgage lending process. Early on we set a goal of reducing the cost to originate a mortgage by $1,000 through advanced technology tools, such as the Desktop Originator and the Desktop Underwriter, which use expert systems and broad network connectivity to eliminate paper and provide loan recommendations to lenders in minutes. We also work to develop technology that directly helps to expand homeownership in America. Visitors to HomePath.com, our Web site, can find useful tools to help them decide whether they are ready to buy a home, prepare for the lending process and reach additional online resources.

Q: What skill sets does your industry most immediately need to meet these technological changes?

C.M.: Fannie Mae operates in a state-of-the-art client/server environment using the latest object-oriented techniques. In the present and looking forward to the future, we have increasing needs in database management and object-oriented development.

Q: What technology trends have you identified in your industry's workplace?

C.M.: Competition continues to grow for technical talent in the local D.C. area. While compensation structures are still critical for job-seekers, an ever-increasing number of individuals are looking to work/life initiatives – including flexible work schedules and telecommuting – in making their career decisions. At Fannie Mae, we have introduced several flexible work arrangement options including flex time, a compressed week, job sharing, part-time work and telecommuting. Requests for flexible schedules are considered using a standard evaluation process, allowing managers to make objective, business-based decisions.

Q: What innovative programs are you using to train non-tech workers for tech jobs?

C.M.: First, we "train our own." Fannie Mae offers specially designed Business Technologist Programs to recruit and train non-IT professionals. We identify individuals with an interest in and aptitude for technology – but not necessarily having prior tech experience – and immerse them in an intensive four-month training program. Trainees then move on to 2-1/2 years of on-the-job training. Fannie Mae has sent 400 workers through the BTPs in the last 11 years – with fully one-quarter of them receiving their training in 1997 alone, due to the increased demand for tech workers. Most of the BTPs candidates have some graduate-level education and three to six years of work experience. We also offer advanced "academies" to train existing employees in more highly skilled specialties.

We have recently expanded our BTPs to include a University Systems Technologist class for new college graduates with no prior work experience. Each year, we start with several hundred resumes and boil them down to a class of 20 candidates for the UST program. Again, we're looking for people with technical aptitude. While most of the candidates are computer science, math, economics or business majors with four-year degrees, we also consider applicants with other backgrounds.

Q: What innovative techniques are you using to find experienced high-tech workers?

C.M.: We have a generous employee referral bonus package, advertise jobs on our Web site and on external job boards, search our internal resume database and Internet resume databases, attend external job fairs, sponsor open houses and career invitationals, work with outplacement agencies, utilize university recruiting, work with professional organizations and are converting contractors to permanent employees.

Q: How should graduates in the humanities and social sciences market themselves for local tech jobs?

C.M.: These graduates should look to companies like Fannie Mae who offer specialized training programs for college graduates who have a limited technical background. Fannie Mae hires such individuals through our UST program (described above). In addition, college students who have a limited technical background should look for intern opportunities where they can expand their skills and receive exposure within a company.

Q: What local programs should high-school-age students interested in technology take advantage of?

C.M.: Some local companies offer high school intern opportunities. For instance, Fannie Mae has a long-standing intern program with H.D. Woodson High School. We offer internship opportunities at Fannie Mae and scholarships for selected Woodson students. Our goal is to guide these students into finance and/or technology careers upon their graduation from college – hopefully at Fannie Mae! Beyond such programs, high school students can apply for technical-degree college programs.

Q: How valuable is the Web as a recruitment tool?

C.M.: Very Important. Last week we had over 5,500 hits on our Web page's employment opportunities section. We steer traffic to our Web site through advertising, outside job boards and word of mouth. In addition, we post jobs on external job boards where we get a steady flow of candidates. We also use external job databases to search for candidates.