Software Developer - Associate Software Engineer Charles Schwab Employee Review

4.0
Mar 20, 2016
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Really nice company that pays competitive wages. Charles Schwab (CS) has invested a lot of money into their Lone Tree campus that really has a nice set up. They have many perks, health benefits, matching 401K, Employee Stock Purchase Plan etc. CS is also convenient to the light rail and they offer a discounted pass for those who take advantage of it.

Cons

I found that there was little (if not none) mentoring for students right out of college, you will spend the first 2 months literally just sitting at your desk waiting to get proper permissions (passwords and software access) to perform your job. Nothing at CS moves fast. CS relies heavily on contract employees both onshore an offshore and this presents a challenge. The contract employees (mostly of Indian decent) have their own clique, they stay together and are rather secretive but in the chance they do share information it's rather hard to understand exactly what their saying. I also found that many of the contract employees don't understand investing thus they just go through the motions without real insight into the business to which they are writing code for, which presents a big problem. This is just my frustration and there have been many developers come in an do a great job without issues but then I've also seen top developers leave within a year because of the issues listed above.

Explore other reviews about Charles Schwab

5.0
Jul 13, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Great work life balance, and nice environment

Cons

Sometimes feels like clockwork. Nothing exciting

1.0
Jul 15, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

-Paycheck comes on time most weeks -8% 401k match is very competitive

Cons

-Raises our very low. The “exceeding expectations” raise has been around 3% for the last three years, which is under inflation. -AI is used as the primary way of grading performance, however the way that this AI grades is kept secret from us doing the work. You can have great feedback from client but if the AI scores you low, you will be written up/fired. - Client data entry and account operations have been outsourced to low-quality processors India. Every single day you will deal with issues because of how much sloppy work is being done. There is no follow up or problem-solving regarding these errors, they are just a fact of life at Schwab, and you need to double check pretty much everything being done here. -Most members of leadership, when sharing their personal story, will share that Schwab was their second choice. They call someone who has left Schwab and then come back a “schwabarang” and many members of leadership are Schwabarangs. This can easily be felt in the nature and character of the leadership where the focus is on KPI numbers and keeping costs as low as possible over any kind of improvement of operational effectiveness

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