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Morgan Stanley

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A Bootcamp, Not a Career - Financial Advisor Morgan Stanley Employee Review

2.0
Oct 4, 2025
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

The sheer number of clients that you work with provides a considerable breadth of experience. The need to provide personalized financial advice to so many people in such a short time encourages efficient processes for building rapport, communicating value to the client, and getting to 'yes'.

Cons

The business model of a large book collectively managed by a large team of FAs requires the individual FAs to be relatively interchangeable in order to deliver a consistent service. As a result, there is very little incentive for the firm to encourage any type of upskiling for the FAs. The scale of the book of business relative to the number of FAs encourages driving clients toward firm-managed products that provide more efficiencies. It is definitely a boys' club. The FA side of the office is somewhere around 90%-95% men. This degree of gender skew often results in harassment and misbehavior with essentially no possibility of recourse. There is a palpable divergence in your obligations to the clients and your obligations to the firm. If your actions do not clearly drive underlying sales metrics, you are not doing your job. The fact that you do not build your own book of business makes finding future positions difficult. The "quantity over quality" ethos is reflected in the support teams that you have access to. Some reps are really good at what they do, but sometimes you will get someone who was trained last week, has no idea what they are doing, and may even be intoxicated. There are very few avenues for career progression.

Explore other reviews about Morgan Stanley

5.0
Jun 11, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Culture is great Hours are not bad, rarely work on weekends and track the market open and close Networking opportunities

Cons

Unclear responsibilities Reliant on operations teams

3.0
May 30, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Very good co-workers, Great technology stack. Lot of new technologies and integration with current work.

Cons

They dont even give you a MS cup. They ask you to buy it for 5$. So cheap! Management big on "Giving back", Immediate managers do not like it and are not supportive. Lay off employees twice a year to show profits. Only worried about shareholders and clients. Don't know the criteria for lay-off. So, you are always worried if it is your turn. They boast about mental health and wellness. No good, when they layoff employees like this. HR = Horrible Resources. When you are laid off, they shoo you away as if you are a fly. You feel miserable. They themselves say - "We are better than Facebook or Oracle. We dont fire you at 6 AM over email." Gosh! What a comparison!

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