Charles Schwab Reviews in San Francisco, CA Area

Pros

I like my supervisor and the people I work with and would like to stay; however, my temp assignement is ending at the end of December. The company has provided me with a very good salary and working conditions are excellent. The office/building are first rate, though a significant walk to BART. I have been free to work my own hours, and my supervisor is not a micro-manager. She is content to let me work on proejcts at my own speed in any manner I want. All in all, it has been a pleaser to work here.

Cons

I have applied for several permanent jobs at Schwab, but, unfortunately, with no job offer coming. It is very frustrating to read the job posting requirements, have the experience and the requirements they are looking for, and then not get the job. I really feel like after three months here, I have learned the job, and I wish they could open a requisition and keep me. Just as I am really beginning to learn the job's requirements and functions, I will be leaving. Does not make sense to me.

Advice to Senior Management

I only wish someone would take the time to get to know the company's contract employees and help them find a position rather than just tell those individuals to search the job postings and let us know what you're interested in.

Pros

Great employee benefits, respect for live-work balance, good salaries. I still think Schwab has some of the best financial services available to the public. Essentially, I learned how to successfully invest and manage my own money during my employment with the firm.

Cons

The company is very slow to respond when it comes to updating technology within the enterprise. Internal training programs for employees focus on business and banking skills and not on technology skills, so there is limited incentive for IT workers to stay. Also, when key technology players leave the firm, there is no real plan in place to replace them. This means that the remaining staff end up inheriting more workload and stress, resulting in a domino effect as remaining employees become overwhelmed with the increased work load and end up jumping ship as well.

Advice to Senior Management

Bring back the internal training programs that focus on IT skills. Discontinue the abuse of telecommute privileges by employees, which results in empty offices and lack of productivity. Stop the practice of promoting managers simply because a senior management position opens up, with no regard for how this will affect the direct reports underneath or the productivity of the firm.

Pros

Name recognition within and outside the industry. It looks great on your resume.
Pretty fair work/life balance

Cons

Very low salary and horrible (expensive) benefits.
Uncertainty.
Too top heavy - Ive never seen so many managers and sr managers with no one reporting to them. Everyone is full of themselves and will backstab you to get ahead with the quickness!
Little room for growth unless you come into the company as a sr. manager. And even then, you have to fight for your claim and will probably never see it come to realization.

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.

Pros

- Great people
- Good benefits
- Care about the client

Cons

I've read several comments about how poor the managers are and how political it's become to work here -- it's true, except maybe for a few pockets.

I've seen/heard managers talk about their direct reports behind their backs, I've seen passive-aggressive/subtle bullying towards some very solid employees who just don't happen to play the game right, and I've seen Directors with supposed "influence" get away with a lot of bad behavior just because of their titles and who they report to.

There are a lot of nice people here but in many ways it's a very selfish, hater kind of mentality and an oppressive & toxic environment to work in because it's so passive aggressive & political... there are only a few departments and people with Director and above titles that I would trust and want to work for.

Advice to Senior Management

- Practice what you preach, treat employees the way you treat clients
- Create a culture that rewards true leadership, respect, merit, open communication and fairness; and a culture that says no to bullying, infighting and immaturity.
- Train managers to respect their directs, give them the benefit of the doubt and never talk about them behind their backs, especially without proper context and/or all the facts.
- Go on a roadshow to sit down and talk with the rank and file to get at the truth about what motivates them and how they feel about their managers.... you'd be surprised how toxic certain departments are

Pros

As long as you play corporate politics you are safe - whatever you do don't rock the boat. If you do it is time for constructive termination

Cons

Management is incredibly weak - mostly interested in protecting their little kingdoms and collecting they pay

Advice to Senior Management

Listen to people = listen to people - listen to people

Pros

Decent place to work. Good environment.

Cons

Some challenges for senior management to understand the true nature of a problem and what to do about it.

Advice to Senior Management

Do not micromanage employees.

Pros

Recognized employer
Close to commute options
No one works after 5pm (other than me and a few others)

Cons

Cheap (mostly broken) workspace
Still uses ROLM phones from 60s
Low ball salary
Hidden conditions of benefits (like highly hyped 401K match does not occur until 1 yr of employment - they forget to mention that but do hype the 401K match)
Unfair favoritism
No warning of lay-offs
No web access to personal e-mail to find jobs (even right after they lay you off)

Advice to Senior Management

Pay attention to your workers and the praise they do or do not get when promoting; promoting purely on personal relationships isn't fair.

Try paying your employees enough to afford the commute and outrageous cafeteria prices.

Try treating your employees like humans the way you brag about treating your customers.

Update office spaces; working with equipment from the 60's 70's and 80's is just not efficient.

Pros

Existing book of business
Helpful back office support
Regular working hours
Name recognition
Good benefits
401k match

Cons

Compensation to Financial Consultants (FCs) per product sold is terrible. For example, when I was at Schwab if a client invested $100,000 in mutual funds the FC would only be paid $135, and Schwab didn't pay the $135 up front. They paid it out over 12 months meaning the FC only received a monthly payment of $11.24 while Schwab earned interest on the unpaid balance. To make matters worse If the client sold the mutual funds and put the $100,000 into a Certificate of Deposit the FC's pay would drop 92% from $135 down to $10.80. Remember that the $10.80 would be paid out over 12 months which works out to a monthly payment of $0.90 to the FC.

To be fair Schwab does provide each FC with a large book of business. However, based on Schwab's miserly compensation plan the FCs would starve if Schwab didn't do that. Another problem is that Schwab's compensation plan is very confusing and changes frequently, which I believe is intentional. While I was at Schwab the compensation plan changed five times in two years, and it was almost impossible to determine what my monthly pay would be. The client tracking system was not well designed and I believe Schwab should have it upgraded or consider using a different program.

As a FC I felt pressured by Schwab to sell certain products. In the branch where I worked management told the FCs to position Schwab's yield plus fund (SWYSX) to clients as a money market fund alternative when in fact it was an ultra short term bond fund. In 2008 SWYSX lost 35% of its value while money market funds didn't lose a dime . Several FCs in my branch who sold the yield plus fund as Schwab advised received written complaints from their clients who lost money in it. Those complaints are now publicly disclosed in the records of those FCs which could hurt them professionaly. I'm glad that I didn't sell any of it.

Advice to Senior Management

Be open and honest with FCs and treat them fairly. This means establishing and sticking to a compensation plan for FCs that makes sense, and increasing their compensation for products sold. Proceeds from product sales should be paid out to FCs as a lump sum instead of over 12 months. You should understand that sales can fall during economic downturns such as the one we are currently experiencing, and take that into consideration when evaluating a FC's performance.

Pros

Ethical, Great mission, Client focused

Cons

Lots of politics, Bureaucratic, Mediocre