Spring Intern Review

I very much enjoyed the Spring insight week at Morgan Stanley. I think the format of the week was very good, and allowed participants to get an insight into different roles in the company, as well as the company culture and what day to day life is generally like at Morgan Stanley.

We were able to communicate with the individuals giving talks by asking questions on menti.com. This allowed the sessions to be interactive and gave everyone a chance to participate. Morgan Stanley emphasised their appreciation of the questions coming through, thus I felt as valued as I could have done given the circumstances.

When it was required, technical support was given, but due to the nature of the programme, guidance and support were not all that necessary in terms of participating in the programme. However the individuals giving talks on their roles gave lots of guidance as to why their role might suit you as an individual.

Less so in terms of skill development, but in terms of information received the programme has been invaluable in helping me decide what future career path I would like to go down. The speakers were clear in their approach and very genuine, thus making it easy to understand what the different sectors at Morgan Stanley are really like.

The insight was extremely well structured. Morgan Stanley used the online platform Zoom to host video calls for all of the participants to join, with each session being roughly the same length and covering a clear topic. It was very easy to follow the schedule, and the sessions were a good length of time (not too long or too short).

The atmosphere was generally good, and it was nice to see everyone's faces on the screens. The structure of the programme was generally formal, but nonetheless the Morgan Stanley employees who spoke to us were very friendly. Overall I thought the atmosphere was as good as it could have been given the circumstances.

There was no personal training or development in this programme as it was moved online and done virtually due to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, based off of the attitudes of the individuals running the programme (who seemed committed to us as individuals) I feel assured that Morgan Stanley would help us develop if we participate in Summer programmes, or had the Spring programme not been online.

This was definitely the main thing achieved from the insight programme. Going through each of the sectors at Morgan Stanley, individuals gave talks about their roles, how they got to where they are, and what an average day in their job looks like. This was very useful and insightful to hear.

This spring insight gave some insight into culture at Morgan Stanley but due to the virtual nature of the programme, it was difficult to get an in-depth insight into the company's culture. However speakers did talk about their lifestyles at the company, the different teams they worked in and how the different sectors of the bank communicate with each other.

The content of the presentations given by the employees of Morgan Stanley was extremely useful in helping me decide on my future career paths. The different careers at Morgan Stanley were very well explained, and it did not feel like anyone was trying to sell us a role, just give an honest insight into their job.

There was no reimbursement or payment due to the programme being moved online due to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, prior to the pandemic, in the initial offers it was made clear that travel and potential accommodation expenses would be reimbursed if the face-to-face programme at the London office had taken place.

There were very limited opportunities for networking due to the online nature of the programme, however participants were strongly encouraged to connect on linkedin to get to know each other better, and form useful contacts. We were also encouraged to connect with the speakers from Morgan Stanley if we had any further questions.

A reiteration of my prior point, networking opportunities were very limited throughout this programme due to the online nature of the programme. However the speakers from Morgan Stanley were very friendly and encouraged us to connect with them if we had any further questions about anything they had spoken about.

The programme largely focused on speaking to participants about the roles at Morgan Stanley and what each of these roles entailed. However, some speakers touched on their lives at the company outside of work, and this topic was also brought up in some of the questions. But overall this was not the focus of the Spring insight.

Yes I would definitely recommend this Spring insight programme to a friend. The programme gave me a lot of clarity on what future career I might like to pursue, and gave me a far deeper understanding of how the company operates and its different sectors within the Institutional Securities group.