Pros
I work in the client service and support division in Schwab so these comments are from my experience in that role within the company. It is a great place to start a career in the brokerage business. You get great deal of exposure to all aspects of being a broker. If you looking for a place to get your foot in the door and gather experience it’s a good place to begin a career. If you really think the brokerage business is for you and you have minimal experience, you’re paid a salary, so you don’t have the pressure of building a book, and you can gather the experience necessary to maybe gain a more lucrative position down the road. The benefits are great as well, and the salary is reasonable. They also allow you to study for your series 7 and 63 while on the clock, and the exams are paid for by the company.
Cons
The way employees (at least in the service centers) are ranked for promotions, raises, etc is not the greatest system, and often times leaves talented people left behind. The system rewards those who can manipulate it successfully. For example client surveys account for about 25% of your bonuses compensation and indirectly your ability for promotions. Surveys are disproportional weighted, so if you get one non-perfect survey it can have a major adverse affect on where you stand with in the ranking system for bonuses and promotions. Also management has a real hard time throwing out bad surveys that reps did nothing to deserve. In other words senior management doesn’t have your back. And there are those who manipulate the system. A survey is generated on almost every inbound call, if you remain on the line and let the customer hang up before you, no survey is generated. Therefore, what you find is that reps who are highly ranked in surveys have very few of them, because they are not allowing clients to take the survey and manipulating the system, and unfortunate they are rewarded for doing so. Also in my experience our FC's (financial consultants) in our branch network are not the brightest bunch. For example I had an FC call and ask me how to figure interest due on a CD at maturity. I mean for crying out loud a sixth grader could figure that. The training is not the greatest either. There is very little in the way of training brokers to be brokers. If you want to be successful and knowledgeable you have to do the homework on your own.