MSCI Senior Associate reviews

- 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.

Low morale Too many meetings-Need less talk and more work done Depressing office environment Job insecurity Many different cultures brought together in aquistions that do not work cohesively (one is laid back- the other understands the Urgency) Managers who do not fully understand their teams or the work their teams do Time-off discouraged between March-June One person expected to perform the duties of several employees or an entire team because of cost cutting Talented, experienced employees are expected to train new hires and are then laid off