Charles Schwab seems to be pretty good in regards to taking care of their employees. This is my first corporate job and most people I work with have been @ the

Charles Schwab seems to be pretty good in regards to taking care of their employees. This is my first corporate job and most people I work with have been @ the company for 10-20 years. All of those people rave about working for Schwab. I don't feel quite the same way but I also don't have anything to compare it to. They love benefits and how well the company treats them. The IT side is pretty well funded and you can work with some neat tools. If you get on the wrong team, you will have a tough time getting past the "group-think" established by the ranking veterans who refuse to innovate. However, that seems to only exist at the "team" level rather than the organizational level. I had to learn the appropriate place to take certain ideas. A downside is that they don't seem to fire anyone which can lead to quite a bit of "bloat" at the lower end of the staffing spectrum. However, the higher up the technical ladder I climb the more brilliant people I meet. The corporate red-tape is a never ending battle and my favorite managers @ the company thus far have been able to remove me from those situations and let me work on fun stuff. The culture is a little too formal for me. The dress code is "business casual". I feel like a renegade for wearing a t-shirt to work. They have an odd reluctance to spend money on certain things and have no trouble dumping 100's of K into something else. We still use 4:3 monitors at work and I can't bring in a widescreen from home. It drives me up the wall. Overall, the company will treat you well. You will receive a reasonable compensation. You will fight normal corprate red-tape related fights. The "unofficial technical leaders" are really smart people and drive the company in the right direction. A few people seem to take advantage of the "it is hard to get fired" here mantra, it shows.