What Fairway is like
What is the culture like at Fairway?
Holly Mattson President of Recruiting, Fairway
Hometown, at national scale. Fairway has won six consecutive USA TODAY Top Workplaces awards, judged entirely on confidential employee feedback, runs on ten core values written with employee input, is employee-owned, and funds two nonprofits. The shorthand we use: loans are what we do, not who we are.
Culture is the thing every recruiter claims and almost nobody can prove. So here is the evidence, then the feel.
The evidence. Six consecutive USA TODAY Top Workplaces awards — a ranking built entirely on anonymous employee surveys, not on anything a marketing team submits. Newsweek named Fairway one of America’s Greatest Workplaces for Women in 2025. Fairway ranked #2 among all U.S. financial-services Top Workplaces with 1,000+ employees in 2025. And in 2026, Steve Jacobson received the Top Workplaces #1 Leadership Award for CEOs of companies with 2,500+ employees.
The values. Ten of them, written with employee input. They decide internal awards, they shape hiring, and the third one — have fun — is official policy at a multi-billion-dollar mortgage company.
The ownership. Employee-owned since 2016, and being sold back to the team. People behave differently in a building they own.
The generosity. Two nonprofits, more than 450 service dogs placed, 15,000+ care packages with handwritten notes, and $1 million committed to disaster relief within days — twice. See does Fairway give back.
The feel. It is a fifty-state company that still answers fast and still knows your name. If you want to see it rather than read about it, the Top Workplace video is a good two minutes, and a Virtual Fairway Day is the real thing.
Still have a version of this question that's specific to you? Ask it. Holly answers personally, confidentially, usually the same day.
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