MSCI Reviews

Cons

Nothing I can point to.

Cons

Pressure to spend time in office.

Cons

-Penny pinching everywhere, including the backing of growth initiatives
-Targets are a sham because they are given to you so late into the year (usually April/May)
-Bureaucracy everywhere. Even in front-office roles, client activity will get held up due to back office shenanigans.
-Company does not have your best interest in mind. Period. Only thing that matters is the operating margin.
-Can't trust upper management to get things done on your behalf
-Bonus comp is paid well after year end (Feb) so you can't jump ship easily when the rest of the industry is searching in Dec/Jan
-Want you to get a designation (CFA, FMP, etc), yet only back one attempt per test. Rest of industry knows how hard these tests are and backs multiple attempts usually.
-There is no company culture, and morale about the company is low because management reats lower level so poorly (communication not being consistent/clear, cheap) and because of asinine internal processes

Cons

-Lack of CapEx for necessary enhancements leading to antiquated technology
-Lack of cohesion between two worlds (index & analytics)
-Misalignment of strategic goals. MSCI is too driven on quarterly earnings.
-Epitome of political corporation
- Nonexistent HR

Cons

Salary yoy growth and performance evaluation

Cons

Difficult to get in and once you get in it's difficult to move internally unless you receive an advance degree. It is very difficult to learn or understand what other teams do as they don't interact with each other.

Cons

I joined MSCI as a part of a an acquisition. While initially excited to join a larger firm with ostensibly greater resources, I found that over time my group and by extension my job was increasing burdened with bureaucracy. By the time I left, it was quite difficult to actually get things done, as over 70% of my time was occupied by figuring out how to obtain and then chasing down the approvals for any given task. Part of this is the nature of dealing with highly sensitive, market moving financial data. However it became apparent that more and more folks were afraid to make a decision for fear of making the wrong decision and then subsequently getting hammered by upper management. As a result, doing the actual work contained in my job description became secondary and thus very dissatisfying near the end of my tenure.

I would also note that MSCI is at its core a data firm. And because data can essentially be moved anywhere there is a persistent and ongoing effort to arbitrage labor costs and move them to lower cost offices.

Cons

None to specifically note at this time

Cons

Shared services are absolutely terrible if not in NYC or London.

HR - Worst in my career.
IT - Non existent in any office outside NYC ect.

Random rounds of people getting fired every year. Terrible use of outsourcing - I hope they get caught or in trouble for this one specifically . Basically bring in employees from low cost regions - Tie them to a visa so they never quit - Pay them less - I know this practice is rabid in many offices - I hear it takes place in Canada as well.

Cons

Consistent outsourcing of labor, may end up having to train away your job to low wage workers in India or Manila.