Spring Insight Week

a) Submitted my online application consisting of basic information, my CV and a cover letter. (TIP: Apply as soon as possible, MS does rolling apps with spring weeks; Attend any recruiting events that they hold on campus/in London and get a few name cards that you can mention in your cover letter).

b) Received an online invitation for a numerical test that was mostly number crunching and analysis of graphs/pie charts. (TIP: Keep a calculator by your side and work quickly.)

c) Receive a phone interview invitation with a 2nd year Analyst. Interview was largely competency-based but since I had a background in finance, I was asked basic questions on valuing perpetuities and the eurozone crisis. Interview lasted 30 mins and was quite like a friendly chat.

d) Assessment centre invitation in Morgan Stanley's main London office. My time slot had 10 of us (all guys). The HR staff were super friendly and supplied us with cookies and orange juice. Assessment centre consisted of two interviews - one sales pitch of a particular stock that you're given information about 30 minutes before hand. You're given a full blown 10 page report published by Morgan Stanley's equity research team and your job is to convince your interviewer to purchase the stock. (TIP: Be assertive, confident and never lose spirit. You need to be a convincing salesman and need to have belief in why you think the stock will perform well). Following this, you have a second interview with a VP which is again quite competency based - mostly looking at finding your hunger for finance and the banking sector.

Overall, I found the MS culture very friendly, welcoming and the analysts seemed quite chilled out (in contrast to the GS analysts that I encountered during my interview there). MS kept reasserting this belief that they aren't a massive bank like JPM or GS - instead they stick to their core competencies (M&A/Equities) and do a lot of what they do really well.