Charles Schwab Reviews in Phoenix, AZ Area

Pros

Great company benefits, Decent pay, Looks good on a resume. They provide ok training thru-out your time in the dept. They encourage you to get your licensing and will pay for the exams if you pass the first time. Best advice is to take as many exams as you can to become licensed and then go somewhere else!

Cons

Difficult to transfer to another dept, must have at least 2 yrs in your current role (which was not mentioned in the interview) , Micro-managed, difficult to get time off,Be sure to know when you want a day off as you will need to put it months in advance on the calendar! Indirect sales position, they like to call it "needs based selling" in the end it's still sales! I was avoiding sales positions and thought this would strictly be a customer service type role. I figured it out after training that they expect you to cross-sell products when appropriate. Management puts a lot of pressure to talk about other Schwab products with the customer.

Advice to Senior Management

Make the expectations very clear during the interview, do not mislead potential employees as eventually this is what leads to the high-turnover in this department. Micro-managing someone is not proven to be effective!

Pros

Excellent Training
Casual Environment
Younger Generation makes up most of the company
Fast paced and exciting
Assist investors with their portfolios

Cons

If you do not drink the schwabbie kool-aid you will likely be shown the door
Some of management is suspect in fairness

Advice to Senior Management

Schwab's focus is to retain younger, less experienced employees who buy in to the schwab philosophy. The older, more experienced reps with independent minds are the first to be given the boot. Stay for a couple years, get introduced to the industry, and then move on and upward.

Pros

Employee culture was very positive and generally everyone was good at their jobs and smart about their area of focus. Very interesting technology and a great place to learn and experience large complex IT infrasturcture.

Cons

The company has some business challenges as the brokerage competition is very strong and trading volumes are lower then they were in the .com days.

Advice to Senior Management

none.

Pros

Great Manager. Great co-workers who really bust their A**. Great Brand Name. Great Ethics.

Cons

Pay and workload is insane. You feel chained to desk like a slave. They want complete loyalty but will layoff in a heartbeat. The pay is so bad that it is embarrassing. When I applied for a loan, they almost couldn't believe I was at an entry level salary after being employed for 25 years. They have got to pay more to get morale up.

Advice to Senior Management

Pay pay pay and give your employees some perks. IF the bond market is closed, give your bond employees the day off. If it closes early, give them some time off. .Puting hard workers in detention by making them stay when the bond market closes early or is closed, it cheap and petty. My co-workers and me work like a dog everyday. We work an hour extra trading in the morning and the bond market trading works an hour extra in the evening. Why not give us some perks? PAY MORE!
You are going to lose valuable employees when the economy turns. The pay is way too low. Also, how about a Holiday Bonus? Didn't even get a card this year, let alone a bonus. I have worked for cheap companies, but they still gave a bonus and party at the Holidays. This cheapness is REALLY BAD for morale. I cannot believe we didn't even get a card for groceries or some kind of $ bonus. UGH! Really depressing after working so hard. I have personally killed myself this year.

Pros

The services offered are definitely abundant and varied. Very forward looking when speaking of your average "mom and pop" investor. They really are dedicated to having friendly and helpful reps to help clients. Great training program if you are starting from scratch in the financial services industry.

Cons

Pay is the #1 "con" with Schwab. There have been a number of examples of people applying for food stamps, for those who had a couple or few children. Even moving from on job to another, everything is equalized, so more responsibility does not mean more pay-most everything is considered a lateral move, with minimal pay bump (I do mean minimal) if actually making vertical move. Becoming VERY McDonaldized, in that knowledge of investment products is of little value, but more of a "call scripting" you must follow. Following the "script" is the basis for performance review, as opposed to knowledge, expertise, or actual end result of client interactions and/or experience. The focus truly has become that it is more important that you may not know the first thing about what you might be expected to as a broker, as long as you "say it with a smile". I think Mr. Schwab would be embarrassed if it ever got out publicly not only how little the people that are "advising" clients are paid themselves, as well as the knowledge level of literally 95% of the brokers. All the experienced brokers are squeezed out for various reasons, predominantly because they can churn out a class of new hires in about a month, get them licensed, and put them on the phone.

Advice to Senior Management

Placing more importance on financial and investment knowledge of people that are supposed to be offering guidance, if not direct advice, to clients. Right now, your focus borders on malfeasance. Pay for the talent. You don't have to be a leader in the pay scale, just pay folks' enough that with a child or two, they don't qualify for food stamps.

Pros

Sabbatical every 5 years
Ethical Company
Good Brand

Cons

Everything else!!
PAY.. they do not pay well for the industry, they have adopted the attitude of getting people in at low wages and keeping them at the same low wages for years. They also make false promises about promotions and increases.
Management does not value it's employees.
Pay for performance is a joke. It's pay structure has been built to save company money, not to reward great employees.
Very poilitcal- hard to get promotions or good positions
Education is not valued. Do not need a college degree to work here and a Series 7 or Series 9/10 license is valued over education.
Though medical and dental benefits are available, they are expensive.

Advice to Senior Management

Value your employees or you are going to lose them to companies that will. PAY PAY PAY and more Pay. Stop using the state of the economy as an excuse not to promote or give raises to those who deserve it. Promote from within.

Pros

Co-workers are some of the nicest people in the industry. Good brand name.

Cons

They don't seem to care about employees. No Xmas party OR bonus. No perks. They require employees to spend a fortune on healthcare. Morale is in toilet yet nobody seems to care. I feel they are taking advantage of crummy economy to halt raises and cut bonuses. Burnout is severe.

Advice to Senior Management

Treat employees like they matter. A best friend got laid off without warning after giving his blood, sweat and tears to the company. How about a surprise XMAS bonus? XMAS stock options? Pay is already so low given people's experience. Try living on these salaries. It is stressful. You risk losing top talent once economy recovers which will hurt business as clients get used to building relationships with reps.

Pros

Work environment is low key and comfortable.

Cons

Advancement opportunities are not as redilt available

Advice to Senior Management

I do not have any advice for mamgement at this time, but I need to fill in space. Done and done.

Pros

Steady hours
Senior mgmt is ethical and moving in a good direction

Cons

Mid and low level managers are command/control and basically incompetent. Focus is all on useless numbers. Evaluation of brokers is based on factors the broker can't easily control or are arbitrary.

Advice to Senior Management

Make your low level managers into leaders instead of lackeys.

Pros

Job growth. Actively engage employees

Cons

Bad annual raises. 2% for high performers is not enough

Advice to Senior Management

Allow more of incentive based raises.