A-Z Of Employers: Morgan Stanley

What does it do?

Morgan Stanley is one of those big-hitting names that has been around the global financial stage for well over half a century. It started business in New York in 1935 as a traditional investment bank, raising money for corporations and governments. In the 1970s, the firm began expanding into the wider financial field, including sales and trading, asset management, property, research and mergers and acquisitions. The European arm, based in London, was opened in 1977, and the following decades saw expansion into South Africa, South America and the Asia-Pacific region. In 1999 the Morgan Stanley credit card was launched in the UK and the acquisition, from Lloyds TSB, of their Goldfish credit card business is currently nearing completion.

Vital statistics:

The firm has more than 600 offices in 28 countries and over 53,000 employees worldwide. Together they manage assets worth nearly $600bn, or £350bn.

The office:

The global HQ is on Broadway in New York City, with the UK operation based at Canary Wharf in London, where 5,000 employees work. Another 1,000 are in Cumbernauld, Scotland, and around 1,500 people are spread between 10 European locations, including Paris, Frankfurt and Moscow.

Is this you?

About 200 graduates are taken every year, across the firm's various business areas. Many first take part in a summer work-experience programme during university. All degree types are accepted, and you'll need to show you've got a keen intellect, excellent communication skills and an aptitude for the analysis of financial and business data.

The recruitment process:

Go to www.morganstanley.com/careers/recruiting for an application form. How you fill it in governs your chances of getting an invitation to an assessment centre or interview day, or possibly both. Among the usual role-plays and group exercises, expect your inner instincts to be scrutinized in a psychometric test as well. Training for those taken on, all initially given the job title of analyst, is a mixture of on-the-job experience and classroom-style sessions. Central will be intensive instruction on how to use Morgan Stanley's data resources and analytic tools. You'll get as much responsibility as you can handle, and work with a wide variety of clients in different industries, helping them make strategic decisions for their businesses.

Top dollar?

For a firm that exists to manage money, there's surprisingly little information about pay. A "competitive salary" is all that's mentioned in public.

Beam me up Scotty?

After three or four years, many graduates make the step up to associate level, with a corresponding lift in salary.

Who's the boss?

Jonathan Chenevix-Trench runs activities in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. He joined as a graduate analyst in 1984, having just completed a classics degree at Oxford.

Little known fact:

In its European offices, Morgan Stanley has 85 different nationalities, speaking in 83 tongues, united, of course, by the language of money.