The main focus in working in risk management is—you guessed it—the risk factor. Whether it's monitoring and measuring corporate assets, client loans, or credit, risk management requires a great deal of mathematical savvy and problem solving expertise.

"The [mortgage] underwriters wear many hats," says Ken Walus, director of mortgage credit, banking, and mortgage operations at Investors Group, adding that risk management is just one area mortgage underwriters focus on. "Depending on education and experience, each underwriter would have an assigned lending limit. If a transaction is assigned to them within their assigned lending limit, they take on the responsibility for the risk management of the actual transaction."

As underwriting experience increases, the level of responsibility and accountability rises as well. At Investors Group, Walus lists the four levels of underwriters: mortgage loan administrator, associate mortgage underwriter, a full-fledged underwriter, and a senior underwriter. "It's a combination of experience [and] more understanding of what goes on behind the scenes, he says. We have to be certain that what we're lending not only makes sense from our internal guideline, but it also fits into what the regulators are looking for."

In addition to underwriting, risk management is also present in asset liability management. Before joining Edward Jones as a product specialist of financial solutions software, Kenton Zathey worked as a co-op student in the asset liability department with another financial institution. "My responsibilities were compiling risk metrics such as duration management, security concentration, and pricing of some exotic derivatives," he says.

With high-pressure days and months of experience in risk management, Zathey says it was a solid stepping stone towards his current job. "I did learn a lot because you're very much in the thick of things and the work-life balance was much better compared to other finance jobs."

Time sensitivity and balancing the needs of both the client and risk department are just two daily challenges mortgage underwriters face. "Quite often we'll receive the request this morning and the financing condition has to be removed by 6 p.m. today," says Walus. "So you have a client on the end of the transaction that is waiting for us to provide the answer that they're hoping for."

But once the transaction is approved and completed Walus says it's a rewarding feeling to assist clients in fulfilling their dreams. "At the end of the day, clients receive a certain amount of joy and satisfaction of what we've done."

"What you do matters," Zathey adds. "You [are] advising on positions that would impact the firm-wide books, and the responsibility is rewarding, as nine-figure dollar options are material to the firm's overall position."

For young people interested in pursuing a career in risk, Zathey has one piece of advice: "Try to get as much exposure as possible. As risk management has many different areas of focus, like asset liabilities management, enterprise risk management, and the compliance and quantitative finance aspect, you won't know it is right for you until you try it and find out you like it."

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