Morgan Stanley First Round Interview -- HELP!
Hi everyone, I'm a first time poster on this forum.
Today I got an email from my school's career center stating that I have been chosen for an on-campus interview with Morgan Stanley as a summer intern. The division that I will be interviewing in is Sales and Trading. Here are my stats:
School: Ivy, East Coast
GPA: ~3.7
Major: Physics
I think my overall stats are fine for the position but the caveat is that I know next to nothing about the world of finance. During my undergrad years, I have been heavily involved in scientific research and I was looking for a real-world application of physics so I thought, why not finance? The interview is next Tuesday and I'm in a bit of a rush trying to figure out what exactly I need to do to make a good impression with my interviewers. I've been reading the Wall Street Journal, talking with professors about the mathematics of finance, and researching the firm and how I can possibly contribute to it. What else can I do or read to prepare for the interview?
What kinds of questions can I generally expect in a Sales and Trading interview? Will I be drilled on my mathematical skills or will this interview be designed to assess my overall personality and character? Who will the interviewers be and what exactly will they know about me? What could I talk about during my interview? At this point, I am considering focusing my answers on my scientific research efforts and how they have shaped my quantitative and interpersonal skills -- is that a bit over the top?
Finally, how many people are usually selected for interviews from a given school and does an interview mean you have a good chance at an offer?
Thanks in advance for your help!
You can expect a mix of quant and fit. Some interviewers ask more questions of one type over another, so for 1st round, expect the interview to be somewhat shaded toward one. Still, acing both parts matters. Interviewers can be analyts, associates, VPs, and MDs. May be 2-on-1 or 1-or-1. They'll know your resume and will ask at least a couple of questions regarding your experiences. Make sure to have a good reason for your interest in MS, S&T and finance. If you don't ace that part, the rest of your interview is moot; you won't get called back. I think your current focus is fine. You should know how many people were invited from your school--just call your career center. A 1st round means nothing. Assume about 20-40% of 1st rounds will get called back (depends highly upon candidate quality). If you make it to the final round, then your offer chances are incredibly high.
Vault Guide to Sales and Trading would be a good place to start. And MS is very competitive, you have to get through your first round on campus, then moved onto a "superday" where you will have between 4 and 6 half hour interviews and from there they decide whether to give you an offer. And if I were you, know the markets, know about the subprime crisis and have a couple of good, well researched stock picks. Motleyfool.com has some good ones to look at. And yes, I would say since you have no finance knowlege, make every effort to steer the conversation to your strengths. Talk about how your physics major is highly quantitative, and you have excellent math skills (which I assume you do with a 3.7 in physics from an ivy) and how that can help you in the S&T world. Tell your story, they know from your major you aren't going to be a finance genius, don't try and bullshit them. Talk about what you DO know and how that will help you succeed. Thats most important. You learn everything on the job anyways, you just need to prove to them you are smart and a good fit for the firm and have some interest in finance and the markets and want to learn more.
Maybe if you apply for jobs you're *actually* interested in, you'd find it easier to prepare.
Touche Brisbane... its these kids who don't know what they want to do but have high GPAs from good schools that make it so tough for the rest of us haha.
Thanks for the advice so far.
Brisbane -- I suppose I should apply for jobs that I'm actually very interested in but I won't deny that I have only a mild interest in finance. I knew finance was the rave at my school from day one so I thought I might explore it and see if it's right for me. Besides, I have a feeling most people aren't interested in these jobs anyway...
Also, what types of mathematical questions will I be asked? Brainteasers or rote addition, multiplication etc.? It seems like I might have to break out the Mensa book.
sent you a PM
Didn't get that PM redbull.
Hi everyone. Just had my first round interview today and I'd say it went well. It was rather low stress and the only finance related question I was asked was "are you following the markets, and if so, what is a stock you're looking at right now?" The lady that interviewed me was quite relaxed and basically let me talk for as long as I wanted on my research and my math and physics skills. She mentioned that this is the first year MS is implementing a sophomore trading internship, so I was rather lucky in that regard (there are a total of 10 people they interviewed). She also said that the purpose of the program was to introduce sophomores to the world of trading and finance and that I should "give it a try." What do you all think...good, bad?
Um, that's not true. There have been sophomores who snagged MS S&T offers, granted this may be the first time they have a structured recruiting process for it. Sounds like you met someone in HR who conducted a fit interview. If you get called back for final rds, expect tougher, more pointed questions.
I was a sophomore last summer who made it to the superday for their S&T summer analyst program, however I did not get an offer...at my superday a lot of the other candidates were sophomores but there were also a bunch of juniors there as well.
What I meant to say was that the lady told me this is the first year Morgan Stanley is implementing a formalized sophomore internship program.
hey hoffman, glad everything went well and hopefully you move forward in the interview process. if you're interviewing for a quant trading or research position, you should definitely be prepared for questions on stochastics and optimization. if it's IB, ER, or sales, you probably don't need to do any preparation as a physics major. all the questions i got on the IB/ER side could be answered with high school math, and frankly i don't consider things like basic trig, calculus 2, or elementary statistics to be "quantitative"
Thanks, numi. Do you really think all that math prep is necessary for a summer intern position?
for trading? i would think so...i mean, if your background is in physics then you should be prepared to answer questions like that, as others on this board have. for any other area in front-office finance, i wouldn't think any math prep would be necessary. i never did a trading interview but my advice is based on what i've heard from my friends; however, for IB and ER, i didn't encounter anything challenging and i am pretty sure my math background is not as comprehensive as yours. for what it's worth, mine only included linear algebra, ordinary and partial differential equations, multivariate calculus, matrix theory, complex variable functions...topics that clearly are above and beyond what most non-math/engineering students do in college, but stuff that you might have found to be fairly elementary given your background.
you might need more math for quantitative trading, algorithmic, derivatives. You probably need to understand finance more for debt, emerging markets, special situations.
I have interview with this same program next monday! Argh! So scared!
morgan stanley first round interview (Originally Posted: 01/14/2007)
what should i expect? it's for ibd summer analyst. what type of technical/fit? what should i emphasize when asked why ms?
i just got a phone interview today with MS summer analyst its mostly behavioral just the general asking about things on your resume also why IB and why MS
Got some easy tech stuff, asked me what I would pay for .10 forever with a 10% interest rate (perpetuity), what are the 3 sheets, stuff like that. I think that I said what they wanted for the fit so they just made sure I wasn't dumb on the tech stuff and then just sold the firm to me for 20 minutes.
Great question, what are the selling points for Morgan Stanley?
Also, do you expect final rounds to be more or less technical?
I have the first round (15 mins) phone interview with a recruiter in IBD for full time. This will be all behavioral?
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