Trending Content - Investment Banking Forum
Career Resources
WSO Free Modeling Series - Now Open Through
August 31, 2026
9 Free Financial Modeling Lessons
Get instant access to lessons taught by experienced private equity pros and bulge bracket investment bankers including financial statement modeling, DCF, M&A, LBO, Comps and Excel Modeling.
+Bonus: Get 27 financial modeling templates in swipe file
+Bonus: Get 27 financial modeling templates in swipe file
High Finance Applications
Guaranteed
Get at least one offer GUARANTEED
- 1:1 support
- 92% success rate
- 2,000+ mentor network
- Unlimited Live bootcamps
- AI for resume + LinkedIn
- Networking automation tools
- HireVue simulation tool
- Full course library
- Private Slack community
- 20hrs of mocks
- + much more...
Brutal, my cousin developed a hernia from stress and lack of sleep.
There is a search function that will give you plenty of results.
to be fair to the OP, lots of the previous threads are dated perhaps the culture at MS has (unlikely) changed dramatically since then
I've tried to search for answers on this topic but the posts are from a few years ago. If anyone can provide some more insight on the current group culture, I'd greatly appreciate it.
BUMP. Anyone?
Sweatshop. You'd be better of doing an SA stint in Zhongshan, China working for Nike.... exit ops might not be as good but at least your shoe game would be on point.
Know someone who used to work in MS M&A in LA and he said it was an absolute sweatshop with as bad of a culture and hours you can imagine in investment banking. 'Prestigious' and top notch exit opps but proceed with caution
Insane prestige and insane working hours (100 hours every week). When it comes to prestige there are hardly any better groups than this one, but you'll pay a price though..
Litt went from the villain to the villainous sap to o crap! the villain who knows....
The group has a a great reputation (trx experience, culture, exits), which is why it remains a top choice for new analysts/associates every year.
There are no groups where people work 100 hours per week consistently, despite what people say. Coverage groups are actually more prone to grueling hours than M&A given the nature of the work. This includes pitching, house accounts, etc. which are things that M&A likely does not worry about.
Ok, there are no groups where you work 100 hours literally EVERY week but I know groups, or actually mostly offices (often smaller ones) where the analysts work about 100 hours a week 3/4 of the time. I know a guy who interned at MS 2 years back, and he said this group was outright mental. Insane prestige but worst hours of the entire bank. If the OP can handle the hours, he should probably take it.
Intern offer rate at 50% this year.
Curious, how big is the intern class for this group? I heard somewhere return offer rate was 2 out of 6, but not sure how reliable my source was
Bump
Had a friend in the group. Extremely poor culture there with VPs/MDs that like to mentally mess with the analysts.
Consistent 3 or 4AM nights on a frequent basis. This group has retained the blue-blooded Wall Street culture
Thanks, exactly the kind of info I'm trying to find out. How recently was your friend in the group?
Cupiditate quis recusandae et rerum quod dolores numquam earum. Laborum officia expedita provident aut velit deleniti rerum. Fuga a deserunt expedita ea nesciunt.
See All Comments - 100% Free
WSO depends on everyone being able to pitch in when they know something. Unlock with your email and get bonus: 6 financial modeling lessons free ($199 value)
or Unlock with your social account...