Charles Schwab reviews

Terrible schedule. They promise that you'll get one of your top 3 schedule choices. I got my 7th ranked choice out of a possible 8 schedules. In my case, the training course was more like waterboarding since I have an extensive background in financial services. They want to teach you the "Schwab Way." It turns out that the Schwab way is basically the same as industry standard practice. You are, of course, required to keep any brokerage accounts you have with Schwab. Not a big deal and standard across the industry due to FINRA, SEC regulations. However, the section of the company that handles employee accounts is terrible. Don't expect anything short of terrible service from them as they don't have an client - firm relationship with you, but rather an employee - employer relationship.

Schwab hires and fires (aka layoffs) with Wall Street cycles. Recently, with all of the financial turmoil, Schwab has faired slightly better than other companies in the industry, but has been doing layoffs almost on a reguilar basis for quite some time. With all of the cost cutting, some of the recent strategic moves are questionable. Lots of politics involved in working there and you must play the game if you want to advance. If you're in the IT area, you always have to worry about being outsourced since Schwab does a fair amount of outsourcing. All in all, still not too bad a place to work.