Morgan Stanley Reviews

Pros

Good environment in IT front desk office. It's busy and one gets to learn many things

Cons

Work hours can be hard some times

Advice to Senior Management

Pay the good people for them to stay

Pros

Prestige, intellectual ability, motivated people, very good pay

Cons

Flat structure, not much scope for advancement, mercenary, no work-life balance

Advice to Senior Management

Listen more to employees instead of thinking of bottom line only

Pros

Good benefits, good team environment

Cons

Overworked underdeveloped technology and antiquated systems compared to other broker dealers

Pros

Learn new skills / Good Networking

Cons

Underpaid - promotional process is inconsistent and biased.

Advice to Senior Management

Wake up.

Pros

be familiar with large infrastructure, platform, interesting projects.

Cons

Has to do production supports with on-call schedule. work at weekend.

Advice to Senior Management

It would be better to supply food at work

Pros

Smart employees, leading-edge technology, knowledge sharing and seminars in the work-place, opportunities to travel at the right level, good cafeteria at most sites.

Cons

Non-competitive pay in the last two years, removal of pension, increase in health premiums. Promotion process looks random at best, and biased at worst. Compensation appears not to be correlated to effort or performance.

Advice to Senior Management

Chop out the dead-wood so that you can pay the remaining employees a market rate; move away from the 'family' rhetoric and be more honest about past mistakes and future realities. Review bonus structure for employees in cost centers, increase base salaries.

Pros

-Industry experience
-Great global opportunities
-Great Benefits

Cons

- Low Pay
- Rather hire from outside then develop from within
- Regularly changing focus

Advice to Senior Management

Value employees and they will bring you back to a respectable position in the industry.

Pros

Great entry level program. Great way to build contact base and network. Reputable firm to work for.

Cons

Hard to advance if you are not a junior partner, or in production. Lot's of bureaucracy, and tough to get recognized with the firm, even if with a big team.

Advice to Senior Management

Invest in Analyst program more. Build a better path form them to avoid attrition.

Pros

Management is pretty open about market changes and the direction of the business. For example, three years ago ahead of the Volker Rule, the former CEO, John Mack, said that he was re-engineering the firm to be less principal activity driven, and more client-focused/flow focused.

Cons

Outside of investment banking and a few algo prop traders still leftover, pay typically is between 25 to 75% less than street standard for anyone VP and below.

Part of the problem is the review process. For non-officers, there is only one person who reviews you- your boss. You could get rated "Above Expectations" yet get paid the worst quartile in year end bonus. There is no logic to how comp is determined if indeed there is supposed to be a correlation with performance.

The recent rounds of layoffs were all communicated to the media prior to the employees. Classy.

Advice to Senior Management

Revamp the review process and link it with performance. Stop capping certain divisions due to historical precedent.

Pros

Generous vacation time, strong name, relaxed working environment.

Cons

Below market pay, lateral only mobility moves, no incentives to work hard, overtime is subtracted from your year end bonus (if you're lucky enough to get one).

Advice to Senior Management

Act like you care about employees. Until that happens, MS is going to be a revolving door for the talent and a cesspool for the slackers.