I applied through an employee referral. The process took 1 day. I interviewed at Charles Schwab (Lone Tree, CO) in Sept 2015
Interview
Overall, the interviewing process was well done. I interviewed with five different people, including the hiring manager and his boss. There were a smattering of technical questions throughout the four hours I spent with the group that interviewed me. The most challenging part of the interview was being asked to refactor an application. While I don't think I was great at it, I did reasonably well and appreciated the experience. The quality of the people I encountered was reasonably high. Seems like it would be a solid place to work.
Sadly, the recruiting process at Schwab is among the worst I've ever seen. The recruiter called me and performed a couple of unprofessional maneuvers:
1. Told me that they "might" be interested in me, but they're also considering other highly qualified candidates. While this was most likely true, I was left wondering why on earth would a representative call me and lead with a statement like that. As the process unfolded, I came to realize that this was the first in a series of tactics aimed at reducing the offer amount.
2. Bluntly asked me how much I made, but flatly refused to give me a salary range for the position and an idea of where the hiring manager thought I should fit within that range.
Ultimately, a manager called me with an offer that was a little lower than my current position. While it was clear they could move a bit on the salary, they wouldn't have been able to entice me enough to make the change and I still had the horrible taste of Schwab Recruiting in my mouth. It's difficult to leave Schwab a negative review because the high-quality personnel I encountered, but it just wouldn't be honest to give a thumbs-up considering their completely broken recruitment.
I applied online. I interviewed at Charles Schwab (Austin, TX) in Feb 2016
Interview
First round was a 10 min phone interview with the talent acquisition person, then a 30 min phone interview with the hiring manager, not a technical interview. just the usual questions about experiences in various technologies...nosql database, code refactoring, how did you hear about us, tell me about yourself, etc