"Morgan Stanley Gets 90,000 Summer-Program Applications" (Bloomberg)

Water Cooler Careers
#1

Morgan Stanley Gets 90,000 Summer-Program Applications By Michael J. Moore Jun 24, 2014 1:08 PM ET__http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-06-24/morgan-stanley-receives-90-000-applications-for-summer-program.html

Morgan Stanley (MS), owner of the world’s largest brokerage, received about 90,000 applications for its summer program for analysts and associates.

More than 1,000 people, or roughly 80 percent who received offers, accepted a spot and began working in the past few weeks, Chief Executive Officer James Gorman, 55, said today in a memo to employees. Mary Claire Delaney, a spokeswoman for the New York-based bank, confirmed the contents of the memo.

Wall Street firms have been touting the selectivity of their programs for recruiting junior talent to counter worries that they’re less attractive employers in the wake of the financial crisis. The acceptance rate of less than 2 percent is lower than Harvard College’s 5.9 percent for the coming year’s freshman class.

“It’s not going to be a constraint,” Gorman said of attracting new employees in March 2012. “There will always be somebody who says ‘Well, I always wanted to be an investment banker, but I’ve had this sort of moral epiphany, and now I’m not.’ I mean, it’s ridiculous.”

The title of analyst typically is used for undergraduate students who intern for the summer, and doesn’t refer to research analysts who recommend stocks to investors. Associates are usually graduate school students.

Morgan Stanley Chief Executive Officer James Gorman said in his memo that more than 80 percent of those who were offered a spot for its summer program for analysts and associates had accepted.

Goldman Sachs

While Morgan Stanley gave figures for the entire firm, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. last year disclosed the applicants to its investment-banking division. The unit selected 350 summer analysts from a pool of more than 17,000 applicants, President Gary Cohn said in May 2013.

Morgan Stanley’s summer class this year hails from more than 275 schools, according to the memo. The number of applicants is higher than last year, a person familiar with the matter said, asking not to be named because the information isn’t public. Morgan Stanley declined to give historical figures.

“Clearly, Morgan Stanley’s brand on college and university campuses is strong and continues to grow as we seek to attract and recruit the very best talent,” Gorman said in the memo.

Investment banks including Credit Suisse Group AG (CSGN) and Bank of America Corp. (BAC) have sought to improve working conditions for junior employees by encouraging them to take time off on weekends.

To contact the reporter on this story: Michael J. Moore in New York at mmoore55@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Peter Eichenbaum at peichenbaum@bloomberg.net Steve Dickson

#2

Morgan Stanley’s 1000 included all back office, operations, and IT.

which means getting the front office role is far harder than 1,000 out of 90,000

#3

How many of the resumes were of the following:

  1. Felon

  2. Speak no english

  3. Dishwashers at Carnegie Deli (or other NYC deli) who heard IBers make a lot of money

  4. Way over/under qualified

  5. Foreiners who are looking for greencards

  6. High School drop out losers who saw Wolf of Wall Street and want their shot

  7. Other clowns wasting time

If one would factor all of the above out, I’d lay a steep bet that 90k goes to less than 20k in a hurry.

#4

^don’t they make the application progress tedious to filter out time-wasters? i’ve only ever had to apply for a couple of grad schemes a few years ago but the banks I applied to back then had pretty in depth and drawn out application process involving cover letters, uploading transcripts and answering motivation questions etc.