Applied online at Charles Schwab website. Two weeks later, I received an email saying to do quick questionnaire. The questionnaire was straight forward with many examples of customer service. After that, I received an email stating that the company was still looking at applicants and I will be contacted if chosen. One month after I sent in my original application, I was contacted by a recruiter to set up a phone interview. The phone interview took place 5 days later and was about an hour long (We actually went way over time and had to end it). The recruiter said I will be contacted if chosen for a second round interview.
After 2 weeks from phone interview, I received a call from a local Charles Schwab manager inviting me to an interview. Since I was in finals week at school, the manager said he would call back in a week to set up interview time. One week later, I was contacted by a different manager at the same Charles Schwab office to set up an interview time. A week later, I had my interview at the office. The interview consisted of a senior manager and a recently promoted manager. Both were very friendly and informative of the position. The first 15 minutes consisted of the managers talking about the intern position I applied to and what they do at Charles Schwab. The next 30 minutes was questions about my school projects where teammates dropped out, how I would handle various customer calls, and school activities/organizations. The last 30 minutes, I asked questions about the company, CEO, the managers backgrounds both academic and professional, why they chose Charles Schwab, and really just tried to get to know them better. They said they would contact me in two weeks with results.
I did not feel I did well in the second round interview, but three weeks later, I was contacted to inform me that they wanted to proceed with me. The following week consisted of a background check which took 5 days (I think it usually takes longer), drug test, and finally an offer letter.
Overall, the process took about 2.5 months. My advice is to not get nervous if they are not contacting you when they said they would. They get very busy and usually contact 1 - 1.5 weeks after they initially said.
Tips: Research company, watch CEO videos and reference them in interviews, research the area of Schwab you are going into, have at least 3 examples of excellent customer service*, be in a finance related association at school (leadership position), examples of school activites and projects where you had different/unfamiliar roles, have at least 30 minutes of questions planned (know where the recruiters came from, why they chose Schwab, what the pay is, anything I could be doing to better prepare myself for internship, reference previous recruiters name in second round interview), and ultimately, your values need to align with the company's values.
*All answers must be in STAR approach. Formulate your answers to relate back to the position you are pursuing. I was going into retirement planning, so the "R" in my answer was always about long-term planning, customer service, or financial/retirement planning experience.
