One thing became clear very quickly during HousingWire’s webinar on how to hire Millennials on Thursday — few attendees knew they wanted to go into housing.

And yet, like our three panelists, they are all got into the industry one way or another.

Andrea Hall, senior vice president of operations with United Wholesale Mortgage, Parvesh Sahi, senior vice president of business development with Ellie Mae, and Ori Zohar, co-founder of Sindeo, all joined HousingWire on Thursday as expert panelists to help explain where Millennial recruiting efforts fell short and how to remedy the problem.

All three of them are HousingWire Rising Stars, which means they are the perfect example of young industry professionals who are moving the market forward.

As it stands, the industry needs to replace roughly 200,000 loan officers over the next decade as they head toward retirement, according to XINNIX, which helps train mortgage lending professionals.

That is a lot of people, and according to the poll results during the webinar, less than 5% of respondents knew they wanted to go into the housing market before they got involved.

So how can the industry fix this?

When asked about the common misconceptions about the mortgage industry, Hall explained a lot of people don’t have an awareness about the housing market.

“When you think mortgage industry, you think Realtor, processor and loan officer. But you don’t know there are hundreds of different roles behind the scenes that give you the opportunity to make a major impact on thousands of borrowers' lives,” Hall said.

She explained that the industry needs to do a better job of educating potential hires on all of the job opportunities that are available to them.  

And Sahi added that the whole industry benefits when people join from other fields, helping to drive change. New people can give a fresh perspective on ways to change processes and when you hire outside the industry, Sahi said it brings in new input on how the industry should be originating loans.

Zohar expanded on this, emphasizing the need to share the impact that people could have by joining the mortgage finance industry.

What will attract Millennials to our industry? According to the panelists, it's more than just compensation. Millennials are very results driven and want to feel like they are making an impact, not only within the company but in the world, Zohar said.

To find out the best ways to increase your Millennial hiring, here's a link to download the full webinar presentation for free.