Summer Analyst Review

The staff at Morgan Stanley were all really welcoming and helped to make it an enjoyable place to work. The internship was well structured with a week-long orientation (including a volunteering event) and other regular organised events throughout the summer. A large group of interns were taken on so there was a good social network.

I feel like I was given real responsibility from day one. My colleagues valued my support and entrusted me with proper work, instead of just busy work to keep me occupied. They were always very grateful for my contributions and treated me like part of the team. I feel like my efforts were always well recognised.

I was assigned both a manager and a “buddy” during my internship, both of whom were lovely. My manager would have an official check-in with me once a week to see how I was getting on but in reality he would actually check in with me most days. Both my manager and buddy were always available to help me with anything.

My workload varied considerably from day to day. There were certain tasks I carried out which needed to be done every day so my mornings tended to be quite consistent. However, I could range from having a relatively work free afternoon to being very busy depending on whether people in the department had assigned me tasks or not.

I was given the same level of responsibility as a graduate in the firm would be given. Many of the tasks assigned to me were graduate tasks. I was left to prioritize my own workload and ensure I met deadlines. Therefore, I had to take responsibility for organising my schedule and keeping on top of everything.

I didn’t have much experience of working in a big firm before this summer so I’ve definitely learnt a lot of general business skills which will be applicable in whatever job I end up in. I also drastically improved some of my technical skills (e.g. Outlook and Excel) which will make my university work next year considerably easier.

The general atmosphere was really nice. Everyone was very friendly towards each other and there were a few social events organised during the course of the summer. There was quite a laid back feel in the sense that I felt comfortable approaching anyone, even more senior employees. People were happy to help each other out.

The internship was well structured with a few days of official orientation at the start. This allowed all the interns to meet each other and learn about the general aspects of the company and the internship. We were then introduced to our managers and began working in our department from the second week onwards.

There were various online courses which I had the option to enrol in which provided training on a variety of different things e.g. excel skills. During my time at Morgan Stanley the other members of the department also spent quite a lot of time training me. I had regular meetings with my manager to track my progress and discuss further ways I could develop.

Morgan Stanley has made it very clear how the conversion process from intern to graduate works. They have been very helpful and I have indicated I would be interested in returning. When accepting an offer though I will not know which department I would be returning to so it is a slight gamble if you are at all picky about where you end up.

The social aspects of the internship were really good. The orientation week at the start gave the interns time to really get to know each other. This meant that as well as the occasional company organised events, the interns also organised social gatherings amongst themselves. There were roughly 60 interns which meant there was always someone I knew around at lunch or wanting to go to the pub after work.

Glasgow is a reasonably priced place for living and socialising. It’s considerably cheaper than London or some of the other big cities with financial districts. The intern salary was definitely sufficient to cover living and socialising costs. Glasgow has a wide array of cafes, restaurants, pubs, clubs etc so whatever your budget you should be able to make it work.

Glasgow nightlife is really good. It is a small enough city that many of the main bars and clubs are within walking distance from one another which is nice. However it is still large enough to offer lots of different options. Drinks and entry are reasonably priced and there’s lots of food places open until late at night.

There were a handful of company organised activities outside of work during the course of the summer. However the interns organised their own social gatherings on top of this so there was always something going on each weekend. Glasgow has a lot to offer as well so you don’t need to be worried about getting bored if you move to the city for the internship.