MSCI reviews

4.0

82% would recommend to a friend

(2,016 total reviews)
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Henry A. Fernandez

88% approve of CEO

77% positive business outlook

MSCI has an employee rating of 4.0 out of 5 stars, based on 2,016 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The MSCI employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Finanzas industry (3.7 stars).

Reviews by job title

2K reviews
1.0
Mar 5, 2015

Employees treated poorly - High turnover

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Most of the late nights/all-nights can be handled from home. Vacation days are generous.

Cons

High turnover is a problem. This company cannot keep good people because they treat them so poorly, like promoting people with "dry" promotions (you take on the responsibility, but you don't get the title or the pay). They only promote once a year, so anyone who takes on a new, bigger job, has to perform the job for a year before there is any chance of promotion. Then, many times, the promotion still doesn't come. I hate to admit this, but I see this especially with women,who are rarely promoted - and frankly, rarely hired. Also, there is no respect for family, or personal time. The company comes first. The company always has a reason to give slim bonus/compensation packages, even in the best years. Almost everyone in the office is looking for a job.

3.0
Jul 13, 2014

Good place to start a career

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

1. Good money: the general perception is that salaries are higher than what other, similar companies can offer, especially in Emerging Market offices; 2. The company is abundant in learning opportunities, thanks to the available internal training programs. The company also supports the education of employees by giving them substantial support to sign up for the CFA exam. Also, MSCI has very high profile clients and if you have the chance to work with them, you get richer every day with important experience; 3. The company provides a professional, well equipped and modern office environment.; 4. The competitve environment of MSCI forces you to learn to promote yourself and to build your brand internally - in my view, this is a pro; 5. Great work-life balance - all-nighters are uncommon; 6. Some team leaders are exceptional and great to work with. MSCI selects its employees carefully, so you can work with some really smart people; 7. If you like working in an international environment with many teams all around the globe, MSCI is your place.

Cons

1. In terms of career building, a lot depends on the office location and the team you start in. Employees are often satisfied with hard-earned & better-sounding titles, which often masquerade a lack of substantial change in role. 2. It can be very difficult to transition from an Emerging Market office to a Developed Market office: if you have plans to move abroad in a couple of years, it is better to hunt down a job opportunity right away in your preferred location; 3. As people in certain teams become frustrated with the lack of career prospect, they tend to move on, taking away crucial knowledge about processes and products, leaving a gap behind. As a result, newbies often need to start accumulating knowledge from scratch under severe time pressure; 4. Unfortunately, as in many large organisations, company culture fosters risk avoidance. If "playing it safe" is the rational path to follow, the result is detrimental contraselection, especially in the leadership of certain teams. In turn, contraselection leads to a series of not necessarily bad, but mediocre decisions, which accumulate and eventually lead to a loss of competitiveness for the entire company. The rise of leaders without a trace of a vision frustrates their team members, especially if the incompetence of the former is combined with arrogance. In such an environment, skilled employees lose their ability to trust and respect their superiors. Their discontent and growing cynicism erodes their motivation, damaging the efficiency of everyday work and fostering a culture of "button pressers" instead of active changemakers. Eventually, skilled but disenchanted employees leave, giving space for new people with less initiative. Mediocre attracts mediocre. 5. New initiatives and ideas are officially welcome and praised, however, they are not executed due to a lack of dedicated resources. Lot of newcomers are enthusiastic to embark on projects to further improve the work environment or the cooperation of employees, however, as they experience that they do not receive substantial support from management to realise their ideas, they eventually lose their belief that a positive impact can be made for the benefit of the company. 6. Management tends to re-arrange team structures too frequently. It can happen that by the time you are starting to understand your focus area, 6 months after the previous team structure was created, you are parachuted to an other team to focus on a brand new market or product type.

2.0
Apr 6, 2014
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Some smart people around. Competitors aren't much better. Dynamic culture. Lots of aggressive managers, male and female. It's like Wall Street without the big bonuses

Cons

Too much greed. Comp doesn't reward hard work nor results. Or is it only top management who gets well paid? Career upside is only for sales people Hectic. TOO MUCH politics.

Viewing 151 - 153 of 2,016 Reviews

Glassdoor has 2,490 MSCI reviews submitted anonymously by MSCI employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if MSCI is right for you.