A Bad System Will Beat a Good Person Every Time - Senior Manager Software Engineering Charles Schwab Employee Review

1.0
17 Jan 2019
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Reasonable pay, good bonuses, and strong benefits. I had a really good manager for the first couple years there and it was great. I thought we were building something good.

Cons

Politics and cronyism to get promoted (especially in management). I had the worst manager of my career for my last year and a half there. It's sad to the department that I helped build be destroyed. People are leaving in droves. They're promoting and hiring incompetent yes-men and passing over talented leaders. Illegal discrimination is rampant in the technical leadership. I firsthand saw ageism and racism used and attempted to be used in hiring and promotion decisions (oddly enough, the racism was that they had too many Indians in leadership and needed to hire white people as diversity hires). In retrospect I think I should have reported it, but HR was clearly there to protect the company and not the employees. Micromanagement is the theme with Engineering leadership. EVPs and SVPs are on tech-lines trying to control chaos instead of empowering teams to do good work and getting the systems to work for them instead of against them. My leadership would hardly ever promote someone into management. Would hire 10 new managers for every 1 they'd promote. Hiring process is a joke anyway. I was hired for a Sr. Manager role with a 2 hour interview and then a several week wait for the background check. They don't know how to consistently hire good talent, so if you go there you'll be working with a mix of good people who got duped, incompetents who can't get a better job, and a ton of contractors from India. Some of the contractors are really good, but they're typically looking for new jobs outside this drain-circling Titanic once they get to the US.

Explore other reviews about Charles Schwab

5.0
5 Jul 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Good culture, pay was good for what it was.

Cons

Micromanage and track everything you do

2.0
23 Jun 2026
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

There are a few great managers here, but they are few and far between. Good amount of sick pay.

Cons

Underpaid for the role. Just another cog in the machine to get tasks done. If you don’t have seniority, but are being mistreated by individuals who are more senior, be ready to shoulder the blame for errors even if you are new. The lack of training is astounding, especially for some departments that are expanding. Lots of koolaid drinking. If you care about being kind and authentic, be careful which team you land with. Take your time during the interview process.

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