Morgan Stanley – Asset Servicing - Broker Dealer Corporate Actions Analyst Review

The aspect I enjoyed most was the responsibility that came with doing a challenging job for 50 weeks. After years of preparation at University and part time work I was able to apply my skills and experience in a way that I could make an impact on my team and prove to be a valuable team member. Being placed in situations that were out of my comfort zone. I enjoyed being under pressure to meet deadlines, chasing settlements teams one hour before deadline. It allowed me to build new skills such as my prioritization skills and be mentally rewarded with helping my team achieve our deadlines.

Although I was working for Morgan Stanley as an industrial Placement employee my colleagues respected my views and opinions as if I was an Associate for the bank.

My manager was very supportive in his approach, ensuring that I had regular one to one meetings with him every 2 weeks. The one to one meeting were a great chance for me to discuss my role and leverage his connection with other departments with operations and front office divisions for shadowing sessions.

During the start of my placement my workload was at a moderate level as I was getting use to the systems, the different events that we processed and the processes behind managing the Corporate Actions. After a few weeks the workload increased significantly with more complex events being assigned to me. This was a great opportunity for me as I was continuously challenged on a daily basis throughout my placement.

The level of responsibility I was given as an Industrial Placement student was extremely high. From liaising with diverse external parties, to speaking with the agents and a variety of internal business units on a daily basis I felt like I had a high impact on helping my team achieve our common goals.

The important soft skills I learnt from taking an industrial placement have formed the foundations of preparing me for a successful career in the banking industry. The soft skills I have learnt have been invaluable at university in terms of managing my workload, preparing and presenting presentations and being able to adapt to situations that arise which I have not been able to prepare for.

My team’s first priority was always ensuring that the clients’ interests came first along with Morgan Stanley’s. But the atmosphere in the department I worked in was outstanding. It was enjoyable coming to work everyday, the people I worked with always ensured the whole team had support and that there was always great team bonding throughout the day.

The structure of my Industrial Placement was very well designed; along with my daily role there was small focused presentations on specific departments within operations helping to give a greater overview of the operations division as a whole. There were also large presentations delivered by senior management on a variety of issues that also spanned beyond operations.

Morgan Stanley offered a large variety of online training courses, along with team-to-team presentations that anyone could attend as long as you had sign off from your manager. My manager encouraged me to attend as many as I could to gain a comprehensive understanding of Operations and other divisions within the bank. I was also given specific training provided by my team in relation to Corporate Actions and the internal systems that I used during my placement.

I have been offered a place on the Operations Graduate scheme starting in 2015 and I am looking forward to a challenging career within the banking industry.