Team Member Spotlight: Will Sanders

When Will Sanders decided to join the Army National Guard in 2009, he didn’t tell anyone until the day before he left for basic training.

“That’s when I finally told my mom,” Sanders said. “I wanted to make the decision based on my opinion, not based on what my family and friends thought. I kept it very secret.”

Today, Sanders works as a Systems Engineer within the team that provides information security for Rocket Mortgage^® and the rest of the Rocket Companies^®.

Sanders had been attending University of Michigan Dearborn, working toward a degree in information technology management, and thought joining the military would be a great way to pay for his education.

After basic training, he trained to be a 13D, a Field Artillery Automated Tactical Data Systems Specialist. 

In May 2010, Sanders found out his unit would be deploying to Iraq later that year. They spent a year in Iraq, doing convoy security throughout the country.

When he came back from deployment in September 2011, he made the rank of E4, and in 2013, he was hired to train non-commissioned officers at the Port Huron Armory. Later that year, he was promoted to E5 – Sergeant – and had 14 soldiers reporting to him.

The leadership skills and style he developed during this time has stuck with him even after his military career came to an end and has served him well in his role within the Rocket Companies^®.

“I took care of my soldiers, but I never babysat my soldiers,” he said. “They knew my standards. They knew every day what they had to do, and they just went about doing it, so I didn’t like to check up on them too much.”

Before he left the military in September 2015, he spent 2 months in Latvia putting his leadership skills to work training the Latvian Army. 

Once he got out, he set about finishing his education, graduating in December 2015 with a bachelor’s degree in information technology management. In November, he started working at another mortgage company and after graduating he was hired on full time as a system administrator.

In May 2016, he decided to leave that job and went on a 2-month trip to Europe. When he returned from the trip, he met a Rocket Mortgage^® recruiter at an event and gave him his resume. Two months later, he was offered an opportunity to interview for the Tour of Duty program at Rocket Mortgage^®.

The Rocket Mortgage^® Tour of Duty program gives veterans who have recently transitioned from service the opportunity to gain experience in the civilian workplace.

Sanders was torn because the program only promised 6 months of employment and would mean a pay cut from his previous job, but a good friend who works as a Rocket Mortgage^® mortgage banker encouraged him to take the opportunity. 

“He said, ‘You’ll learn so much here. You’ll learn so much in your field,’” Sanders said. “So I decided to take the leap.”

Through the Tour of Duty program, Sanders was hired to become a part of the Information Security team.

“When Will came to us, he was gung-ho, ready to go and he’s been a great asset ever since,” Bassam Mouhanna, a Senior Systems Engineer who works closely with Sanders on the team, said. “He’s a real go-getter, very smart, very inquisitive, always wanting to learn and to help out.”

After 6 months in the Tour of Duty program, Sanders was offered a full-time role as a Systems Engineer.

Despite being one of the newest members of the team, his team leader Mark Webler, who is also a veteran, said that Sanders shows a great deal of leadership on his team.

“I find that Will has natural leadership ability,” Webler said. “You can tell when somebody’s a leader, and it’s not because they’re the best coder. In the military, they don’t typically grab people because they’re fast runners or because they’re stronger or because they can shoot better. They grab people who are actually leading people, who people gravitate toward and listen to. That’s Will.”

What advice does Sanders have for other veterans who are interested in the Tour of Duty program? Be prepared to hit the ground running. Once you start, he said, you have to be ready to do the job you were hired to do.

“It’s like a full-time job, they treat you like a full-time employee,” he said, warning that it’s not like an internship.

Sanders, who’s been with the company for about 2 1/2 years now, loves working for the Rocket Companies^® as a veteran.

“I love it. I think Rocket Mortgage^® and the Rocket Companies^® really do care for their veterans, they really do take care of their veterans and they try to provide you with the tools to succeed,” he said.