Morgan Stanley Reviews
Updated Jun 8, 2023
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Top Review Highlights by Sentiment
- "Morgan Stanley employs some great people that are excellent to have in your personal network." (in 1384 reviews)
- "Pay is good and they provide accommodation which is very close to the office building" (in 490 reviews)
Ratings by Demographics
This rating reflects the overall rating of Morgan Stanley and is not affected by filters.
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- Former Employee★★★★★
Pros
Super company very smart people
Cons
Nothin negative to say about
Continue reading - Former Employee, more than 5 years★★★★★
Starter Job
Jun 6, 2023 - Fixed Income Associate in Baltimore, MDRecommendCEO ApprovalBusiness OutlookPros
Morgan Stanley will boost your resume and you will get a lot of practical skills/knowledge. You will get a lot of exposure to the market trading atmosphere and will be able to navigate through a variety of systems that Morgan Stanley uses, some of which are used in a variety of firms. The greatest value will come from networking within the firm, many employees will leave for different areas/firms and your connections will grow giving you opportunities in the future.
Cons
Don't expect to rise in the ranks at any one firm. The best strategy is to leave the firm after 12-18months for any other firm willing to pay you more for the same or equal work. Morgan Stanley does not promote frequently and even if they do, they don't necessarily pay you what you deserve for additional work. Changing jobs/firms is the only way to secure a 15-20% raise/promotion. You can always come back to Morgan Stanley and often times they will then offer you adequate pay and i've seen many employees/ex-employees do this.
Continue reading - Current Employee, more than 1 year★★★★★
It's a toss up
Jun 6, 2023 - Director, Human Resources in Atlanta, GARecommendCEO ApprovalBusiness OutlookPros
Comprehensive benefits, flexibility (with the the right manager)
Cons
Heavy workload, little support from management and senior leaders. Old school mentality with respect to working in the office. Not much understanding for those who want to do their jobs and go home. Pressure to "be involved in activities both at work and outside of work." If you don't participate, you're not in the clique and could be passed over for opportunities.
Continue reading - Former Employee, more than 1 year★★★★★
Changing, Not for the Better
Jun 7, 2023 - Anonymous Employee in New York, NYRecommendCEO ApprovalBusiness OutlookPros
Middle management (VP and below) are a collaborative and supportive group.
Cons
Senior leaders here are bosses, not managers. Available tech is that of an early 2010's era.
Continue reading - Current Employee, more than 10 years★★★★★
A "good" place to work. It used to be a "great" place to work.
Mar 19, 2023 - Executive Director, Technology in New York, NYRecommendCEO ApprovalBusiness OutlookPros
James Gorman is an ethical and extremely competent CEO. Generally intelligent colleagues, although this is less true than it used to be. If you land in the right team or area, you'll be working on cool tech. Great benefits. Truly working to rectify under-representation of women and PoC in senior positions. DEI initiatives are sincere and effective. Excellent work-life balance.
Cons
Poorly implemented forced-ranking and culling has made the work environment increasingly office-political from once being fantastically collaborative. This has a negative impact, but senior technology management seems ideologically aligned with dog-eat-dog (because senior tech management has also exempted itself from it) and so seems blind to the downside it has created. Increasingly bogged down by an "Agile transformation" and regimentation that in fact is simply layer upon layer of new bureaucratic process and changed labels for everything. It's so far from what agility actually means that it's a bad joke. Promotions are less about merit and more about what team you happen to land in. I worry about what will happen when James Gorman leaves. Next layer of management is not nearly so inspiring.
Continue reading - Former Employee, less than 1 year★★★★★
Pros
Opportunity to learn different technologies
Cons
Limited management visibility and long working hours
- Current Employee, more than 3 years★★★★★
Pros
Good culture, good work-life balance
Cons
Pay feels a little less competitive, some politics in getting promoted, some in office aspects make the company feel cheap in how it invests in its employees
- Current Employee, more than 1 year★★★★★
Fast paced, lots of opportunity to learn, sometimes some politics
Jun 1, 2023 - Vice President in New York, NYRecommendCEO ApprovalBusiness OutlookPros
- Lots of avenues to learn and improve on - Pays well - Team culture is generally good and non-toxic
Cons
- Can be slow to adapt to change - Can be a lot of politics at the higher levels
Continue reading - Current Employee★★★★★
Pros
great place to learn, take on responsibility, outlast other young people
Cons
bureaucratic in the way you have to wait to be promoted with rest of class
- Former Employee, more than 1 year★★★★★
Pros
Salary. It is not bad but definitely not great. Big financial name on your CV. Looks good.
Cons
- Favouritism based on random criteria like race or native language spoken. You'll be appreciated by people like you that's it. - Managers with little emotional intelligence and zero people skills. They cannot manage a team. They are just there because they've been at the company since forever and will retire there. - Company is sending NA back-office jobs to India or Hungary to save cost but they will they you it's because they find better talent. - No company culture, no relationships whatsoever with your coworkers. - No training, no career building programs, no mentora for new employees - Bosses are impressed by those writing many many emails during off-work hours. - Over time I realized that the quality of the work being done there is terrible. - At some point things will break for real ...
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Morgan Stanley Reviews FAQs
Morgan Stanley has an overall rating of 4.0 out of 5, based on over 17,243 reviews left anonymously by employees. 80% of employees would recommend working at Morgan Stanley to a friend and 76% have a positive outlook for the business. This rating has been stable over the past 12 months.
80% of Morgan Stanley employees would recommend working there to a friend based on Glassdoor reviews. Employees also rated Morgan Stanley 3.6 out of 5 for work life balance, 4.0 for culture and values and 3.9 for career opportunities.
According to reviews on Glassdoor, employees commonly mention the pros of working at Morgan Stanley to be benefits, culture, career development and the cons to be management, work life balance, compensation.
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