Morgan Stanley Smith Barney Interview Questions

7 total interview insight submissions
Interview Experience (66%)

The Interview Experience is a score from 1 star (very negative) to 5 stars (very positive) generated based on the Interview Insights at this company.

The number you see in the middle of the doughnut pie chart is the simple average of these scores. If you hover over the various sections of the donut, you will see the % breakdown of each score given.

The percentile score in the title is calculated across the entire Company Database and uses an adjusted score based on Bayesian Estimates (to account for companies that have few interview insights). Simply put, as a company gets more reviews, the confidence of a "true score" increases so it is pulled closer to its simple average and away from the average of the entire dataset.

3.4
  • Very Negative
  • Negative
  • Neutral
  • Positive
  • Very Positive
Interview Difficulty (83%)

The Interview Difficulty is a score ranging from very difficult (red) to very easy (green) generated based on the Interview Insights at this company.

The number you see in the middle of the doughnut pie chart is the simple average of these scores. The higher the number, the more difficult the interviews on average. If you hover over the various sections of the doughnut, you will see the % breakdown of each score given.

The percentile score in the title is calculated across the entire Company Database and uses an adjusted score based on Bayesian Estimates (to account for companies that have few interview insights). Simply put, as a company gets more insights, the confidence of a "true score" increases so it is pulled closer to its simple average and away from the average of the entire data set.

3
  • Very Easy
  • Easy
  • Average
  • Difficult
  • Very Difficult
% Interns - FT Offers (41%)

The % of Interns Getting a Full Time Offer chart is meant to provide a realistic estimate of the hiring practices of the company based on the reviews at this company.

The number you see in the middle of the doughnut pie chart is the simple average of these scores. If you hover over the various sections of the doughnut, you will see the % breakdown of each score given.

The percentile score in the title is calculated across the entire Company Database and uses an adjusted score based on Bayesian Estimates (to account for companies that have few reviews). Simply put, as a company gets more reviews, the confidence of a "true score" increases so it is pulled closer to the simple company average and away from the average of the entire data set.

28%
  • 0%
  • 10%
  • 20%
  • 30%
  • 40%
  • 50%
  • 60%
  • 70%
  • 80%
  • 90%
  • 100%

Interviews at Morgan Stanley Smith Barney

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Filter by:
Year
Job Title
Group/Division
Location
Experience
Difficulty
Assistant Vice President
Year 2014
Job Title Assistant Vice President
Group/Division Private Banking
Location Tampa
Experience
Very Positive
Difficulty
Average
Other
Year 2019
Job Title Other
Group/Division Consumer - Retail
Location Hartford
Experience
Neutral
Difficulty
Average
Intern
Year 2015
Job Title Intern
Group/Division Wealth Management
Location New York
Experience
Neutral
Difficulty
Average
Intern
Year 2013
Job Title Intern
Group/Division Investment Research
Location Toms River
Experience
Neutral
Difficulty
Easy
1st Year Analyst
Year 2015
Job Title 1st Year Analyst
Group/Division Investment Research
Location Chicago
Experience
Neutral
Difficulty
Average
Intern
Year 2015
Job Title Intern
Group/Division Wealth Management
Location Tucson
Experience
Very Positive
Difficulty
Easy
Intern
Year 2015
Job Title Intern
Group/Division Equity Research
Location So Paulo
Experience
Negative
Difficulty
Very Difficult

Interview Questions & Answers - Morgan Stanley Smith Barney Examples

Private Banker Interview - Private Banking

Anonymous employee in Tampa
Interviewed: July 2014
Date Submitted: Nov 13, 2020
Outcome
Accepted Offer
Interview Source
Employee Referral
Length of Process
2-3 months
Application
Phone Interview
1 on 1 Interview
Background Check
Interview
Began with an initial conversation with a recruiter, then referred to screening call with members of current team, followed by interview with MD.

Each was behavioral, focused on industry fit, and knowledge about how industry worked. Lot of behavioral questions directed at teasing out the core competencies necessary.
Interview Questions
How would you deliver bad news that has a significant impact?
Sample Answer

Wealth Advisor Associate Interview - Consumer - Retail

Anonymous employee in Hartford
Interviewed: May 2019
Date Submitted: Dec 08, 2019
Outcome
Accepted Offer
Interview Source
Applied Online
Length of Process
4-5 months
Application
Phone Interview
1 on 1 Interview
Interview
Long process coming out of school, office I was applying to was in the starting phase of a move. Met with a few different complex managers
Interview Questions
Positions was a two year program leading into being a full time advisor and having your own book. Interviews really consisted of questing seeing who you knew and how you could use them or your network to get clients in the future. A lot of chatter about trying to have the younger people in offices help senior advisors and their clients use more of the online tools that MS has. A lot of people don't really care about it, so its hard to push on people. Sometimes they weren't straight up with me and would have me meet random people in the office as a personality test I guess.
Sample Answer

Intern Interview - Wealth Management

Anonymous employee in New York
Interviewed: February 2015
Date Submitted: Oct 01, 2017
Outcome
Accepted Offer
Interview Source
Employee Referral
Length of Process
Less than 1 month
Application
Phone Interview
1 on 1 Interview
Interview
First had a phone interview with a college alum who also works at MS, he then put my resume through to another team that he knew was hiring an intern. Met with a VP on that team a few weeks after in NYC, asked mostly behavioral questions, no unexpected / challenging questions.
Interview Questions
- Tell me about a situation in which you had to produce something under pressure
- What was the most difficult project you had to work on
- If I go talk to your former employers or teachers, how do you think they would describe you?
- Tell me about a time when you had to use analytical skills to resolve a problem
- Why are you interested in wealth management ?
- What are you hoping to gain from this summer internship experience ?
- What are some current events that you follow / interest you?
Sample Answer

Summer Analyst Interview - Investment Research

Anonymous interview candidate in Toms River
Interviewed: 2013
Date Submitted: Jul 06, 2017
Outcome
No Offer
Interview Source
Applied Online
Length of Process
Less than 1 month
Application
Phone Interview
1 on 1 Interview
Interview
Interview process was very quick and easy. The hiring manager got back to me in a week, had a phone interview and then an in person interview with my supervisor and was offered the position a week or so later.
Interview Questions
The most difficult part of this interview was making sure you knew and understood your resume. For the position they were looking to fill, it was more based on a personality fit with the team than it was skills and experiences. There is a lot of on the job training and learning, so they wanted to make sure that I was the right fit for the position. The company did not ask too any technical questions, other than a couple of formulas that should be relatively basic to a finance or business major.
Sample Answer

Institutional Consulting Analyst Interview - Investment Research

Anonymous employee in Chicago
Interviewed: 2015
Date Submitted: Apr 21, 2017
Outcome
Accepted Offer
Interview Source
College / University / On Campus Recruiting
Length of Process
Less than 1 month
Application
1 on 1 Interview
Group Interview
Skills Test
Interview
The interview process started with a basic screen with a VP who came to campus. Questions were largely behavioral. I as invited about a week later to a superday to meet the team. I had a series of 1-on-1, 2-on-1, and at one point most of the available team sat in on one interview. The day included a some case questions from a few Associates and then an Excel test. I was given an intentionally scrambled dataset of portfolio returns and asked to visualize the data and then walk some team members through my analysis. The team was friendly throughout and seemed to have a non-nonsense work culture.
Interview Questions
I was surprised that some Associates on the team asked me management consulting-case style questions. One question was: "Tell me how many planes are flying overhead O'Hare right now." The second was: "Tell me how many suits were sold in the United States last year." I was not expecting to be asked if I invested or not, as this was for a full-time position straight from college. I wasn't sure what technicals I could expect given that this was for an Institutional Consulting team. Questions were largely market-based, such as "What did the S&P 500 close at yesterday?" or "Tell me what annualized returns mean."
Sample Answer

Intern Interview - Wealth Management

Anonymous employee in Tucson
Interviewed: May 2015
Date Submitted: Feb 23, 2016
Outcome
Accepted Offer
Interview Source
In-person
Length of Process
Less than 1 month
Application
Phone Interview
1 on 1 Interview
Interview
I applied online and received an email with instructions, then I had a short phone interview and a couple of days later a 1 on 1 interview with the HR person of the branch.
Interview Questions
What makes you different from any other student who wants to become an intern for us?
How will you add value to this company?
Tell me how you follow the markets and what do you think about the future?
Sample Answer

Equity Research Intern Interview - Equity Research

Anonymous interview candidate in So Paulo
Interviewed: September 2015
Date Submitted: Dec 11, 2015
Outcome
No Offer
Interview Source
College / University / On Campus Recruiting
Length of Process
1-2 months
Application
1 on 1 Interview
Group Interview
Skills Test
IQ / Intelligence Test
Personality Test
Interview
The process consisted of many steps. First, when the company went for recruiting on my college, I gave my contact and said I was interested. They emailed me with information about the first encounter, that would consist on a lecture presenting their company, together with a math test plus essay. When approved on this step, I went to the next, that was the Group Interview. They asked a lot about our knowledge on market updated news and tested our knowledge about investment options. On this step they also presented a case interview for each of us to present. All of the questions they gave had the time limit for response of 1 minute. Approved on this step, I was called for some interviews on the bank, from which the most harsh was Equity Research interview. That interview lasted for about 3 hours, and consisted of three sequential interviews. They asked for deep knowledge of valuation and accounting that I had not developed by the time, and had me developing case studies just in time. Obviously I was not prepared for those so they were very harsh on me. I was also tested for logics, which I went well, and was asked to make some balance sheet information on assets and liabilities of a company. My tip for future candidates: Study a lot what you already know, and go emotionally prepared as they may test you on that aspect too. I was very impressed by their office, their people seemed very competent.
Interview Questions
-First, as I was not used to by the time, they gave me case interviews unexpectedly and from nothing.
One of them was to calculate how many cans red bull sold worldwide last year. Plain, from nothing, and just in time. Fortunatelly I went well, as I managed to present the calculations and come to a satisfactory result. As I found out later, that is a common practice among interviewers. They do it to test if the candidate is well prepared for dealing with unexpected situations.
The other questions were basically to know if i had studied (very well) accounting and valuation.
Sample Answer
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