Charles Schwab Reviews

Pros

They pay for your training.
Good place to start a career

Cons

Pay
lack of growth
weird people
Lack of support from management

Advice to Senior Management

Invest more in your employees, its a call center basically.

Pros

Focused on customer service and satisfaction

Cons

Personal compliance and heavily monitored PC environment

Pros

--Flexible working with option to telecommute
--Best Benefit package, 401k matching and health
--very friendly colleagues
--no micro management
--stock options

Cons

--technology not consistent across departments
--direction from leadership is missing
--interaction among different team is absent
--average skill among senior employees
--you will hardly learn anything from senior employees
--positions based on seniority not skills

Advice to Senior Management

--give strategic leadership
--encourage managing directors to update themselves with new technology
--reduce redundancy among some team. try to consolidate

Pros

1) They have a sabbatical program that allows a month off every 5 years. (I would rather just an extra week of vacation each year.)
2) San Francisco is a nice place to visit when you have to go into the corporate office.

Cons

1) Pay is not really competitive in the area.
2) The technology used at Schwab is outdated
3) The computers and internet are extremely locked down making it difficult to stay up to date on your industry or demo new tools. Even remote access is typically done through Citrix!
4) Employees don't feel empowered and often look to their supervisors for validation before making a decision.

Advice to Senior Management

Change your restrictions to technology. It is so restrictive, you will have a hard time getting and keeping high quality technology people. We like to stay informed on new technology (that is why we are high end) and your environment does not allow for this.

Pros

OK, but could improve on a few things, I think for the most part they were very good and I enjoyed my tie there. Obviously not everything was perfect, but nobody is. Overall I was happy

Cons

Management was often not aware of all the issues we had with certain IT related stuff.

Advice to Senior Management

More communication with lower level employes.

Pros

Flexible with working from home when needed - great support when you need time off for "life".

Cons

Lots of red tape at times. Too many meetings. But worth it given the Pros.

Advice to Senior Management

Keep focusing on the postive, as you have. The "Strengths" based philosophy is phenominal, and will keep good employees (like myself) around.

Pros

Great culture and atmosphere; great training; fantastic benefits

Cons

Low pay, low bonuses, poor communication about certain issues

Advice to Senior Management

Pay better and you will retain employees much, much better.

Pros

Charles Schwab invests heavily in employment development. The company pays for licensing, continued education, and accreditation. Time is given to study for most accreditation and licenses during regular business hours.

Cons

While Charles Schwab has built a reputable firm, it has lagged in technological advances, which can be frustrating for clients (and employees). The pay is not competitive for the industry, either.

Advice to Senior Management

Continue to practice open communication and raise the pay to retain talent.

Pros

Great management, vision, and commitment to the client.

Cons

The bank sucks. The technology is horrible, which causes lots of phone calls from angry clients. Also, internal departments call far too often. There's a "when in doubt, call the bank" mentality, rather than check their resources. Many calls that come in from internal departments do not even involve the bank.

Pros

Great benefits, including domestic partner benefits

Cons

promotions not always based on job performance or authenticity

Advice to Senior Management

Stay aware of who is really getting the work done versus who is providing the lip service. Risk management is always important and should not be put aside to focus on customer service.