Morgan Stanley

What do you enjoy most about your job?
For campus recruiting what I enjoy the most is the opportunity to expose students to careers or roles they didn’t know existed. Most students have a somewhat narrow view of the opportunities in financial services. They’re aware of banking, they’re aware of sales and trading, but we have entry-level roles here across 15 different divisions. What I enjoy is exposing them to other disciplines within the industry that they never would have considered.

What do you look for in entry-level employees?
It’s important to know that soft skills are equally or more important as analytical skills. The things that distinguish an entry-level employee are maturity, self-awareness, and resilience. When I think about the analysts who were able to accelerate their learning curve and do well here, it was because they consistently demonstrated those three attributes.

What “insider tips” do you have for anyone applying to Morgan Stanley?
Do your due diligence. Before the interview, speak to as many employees in the industry as possible. Make sure you know about the company, the industry, and your potential role.

What mistakes can a candidate make that will take them out of the running for a position?
Anything that might indicate you would not thrive in a team oriented environment would be of concern to us as we make hiring decisions.

How should a candidate follow up after an interview at Morgan Stanley?
A little known secret about thank you follow-ups is they can often hurt you. We’ve seen so many grammatical errors, addressing the note to the wrong person, getting the name of our firm wrong, things like that. If there is clear inattention to detail that can hurt you. So if you’re going to send a thank you, keep it simple and proofread!

What is the office culture like?
Our culture is definitely one of our many strengths. It is unusually congenial at Morgan Stanley. When we launched our new video for campus recruiting last Fall, it was gratifying to hear from employees that we captured the essence of what it feels like to work here. Our culture centers on everyone helping each other out to accomplish amazing things.

What is the biggest misconception about working at Morgan Stanley?
Definitely that it’s all work and no play. I think that’s what people think about the industry, not just Morgan Stanley. Working with people all day for 5 days a week, you naturally start to develop friendships with your coworkers. All work and no play is definitely a misconception.