Morgan Stanley Smith Barney Financial Advisor Associate Interview

Interview Details – Applied online, five days later I received a personality test which I completed and sent back the same day. Three weeks later I received a phone call from the Branch managers assistant to come in a week later. I went in to the interview and the manager was very down to earth; he liked my past experience and sent a business plan template to complete. He stated the whole process would take about 3 weeks (which is complete BS. They are such a big organization; they are clueless on what is going on). I received a call 3 weeks later to meet with an FAA that told me how hard of a time I will have raising money, and talked about his little piker business and how MSSB's salary is a draw that has to be paid back (which is expected in this industry).

I made the mistake of holding informal meetings with family and friends telling them I was making a switch into wealth management. I waited and waited for the last interview for 4 weeks. I met with a senior FA for another redundant waste of my time interview and I could clearly tell he was intimidated by my track record and connections.

Reason for Declining – This people are a waste of time when it comes to interviewing professionals. No wonder they are collapsing since all they do is hire people with no real work experience or recent grads, and make no accommodations to real producers. They talk to you as if you have no clue what is going on in the industry.
I decided to take my business to an asset management firm that is very accommodating.