Pros
- Wages above average, if you don’t count the 30+% overtime you will be asked to put on it - Decent year-end bonuses - Offices are usually in prime locations in the financial capitals (although relocation and travels are discouraged) - Attractive health care coverage, average 401k retirement plan - Established reputation among customers - Respected research team, especially in Berkeley and Geneva
Cons
- Lengthy interview/hiring process; this will mislead you thinking they know what they are looking for: quite the opposite - MSCI is a software and service company that heavily rely on engineering, although it is very difficult for an engineer to have a voice heard at strategic level in order to contribute to the execution strategy of what designed and planned - MSCI is unable to retain talents they so carefully selected from the market. They say they only retain the best, more often they only retain who can’t have chances elsewhere - The company is in constant turmoil struggling to keep up with the CEO’s aggressive growth strategy based on merger and acquisitions. This reflects badly on the human capital causing high turnover rate affecting overall operations, customer service, product development, ultimately affecting competitiveness on the market - Management is largely inadequate and ineffective: senior managers (mostly Morgan Stanley dropouts) seem busy on keeping the status-quo while trying to land safely to hefty retirements; junior management is, on the other hand, highly unfit, under trained and in many cases sycophant (ie "yes-man") while facing their boss and arrogant while facing reports - The company shows incapable of elaborating and promoting a single culture throughout the global locations; this causes frustration and sense of exclusion on the many and lets some overly zealous managers assuming tremendous decisional power without the necessary checks and balance mechanisms. - The company is missing a global strategy for the Human Resources: a) Training is reduced to the minimum required by regulations b) Training for skill improvement is largely unfunded as budget for training is either minimal or non-existent c) Managers completely lack the role of career mentor for their direct resources with the result that people feel “stuck” in a position without possibility of moving on to another functions As a result people burn-out and quickly move on to another companies when they can. - Politics, rivalry and “prima donna” attitude common on some “empowered” managers (London office), are festering the company feeding anger, frustration and setting teams and offices against each other. - Top managers and officials are too distant from the life of the company as if they don't want to be bothered , and mid-level managers inadequately deals with the reports in a sort of antagonist (as opposed to a collaborative) way - Managers fail to help and empower associates in doing their job: micro-managing and lack of delegation contribute to quick people’s burn-out.