Company: Morgan Stanley
“Consistency, consistency, consistency, there’s nothing more important than that, keep working, at some point the work will pay off”
Interviewer: Dhivyashri Ramesh, CSE, 3rd year
Interviewees: Shruthi S, CSE, 4th Year CEG
Sri Akshaya, IT, 4th Year CEG
GT: Can you tell us a little about Morgan Stanley and the kind of work they deal with?
Sri Akshaya: Morgan Stanley is essentially a fin-tech company. It is an investment bank and financial services company that, through its affiliates and subsidiaries, advises, originates, trades, manages and distributes capital for institutions, governments, and individuals. A career at Morgan Stanley means being a part of an idea-driven culture that embraces new perspectives to solve complex problems.
Shruthi: Yes, that sums it up well, to add on, Morgan Stanley doesn’t directly do customer banking but is involved in financial services advising, investment banking and is an American Bank.
GT: Tell us about your preparation strategy that helped you land the internship
Shruthi: The truth I have discovered and firmly believe in, is that consistency is key. Though I started my preparation late (in May), I kept practicing questions daily till the day I finally got placed. Practicing questions daily was the strategy I used to succeed.
Sri Akshaya: My preparation was a little different. I had been interested in competitive programming for a long time, and used to do it for fun since second year. However, it was near the intern season that I started preparing and solving questions for the process. From that point I practiced and solved sums on a daily basis.
GT: What resources do you recommend for preparation?
Sri Akshaya: For online coding rounds, doing CodeForces is very helpful as it will help you build the skills required to solve the problems which are generally tricky. Doing LeetCode will be very helpful when it comes to interviews. In fact, for my interview, I was asked a question that I had already previously solved earlier.
Shruthi: I agree with Akshaya here, however I personally didn’t use CodeForces. I primarily used LeetCode and GeeksforGeeks for my preparation. The questions in the online rounds will not be the same as what you study, however the concepts that you learn in them can be applied in those problems.
GT: Apart from preparation, what kind of a mindset should one have going into the intern process?
Shruthi: The most important thing is to keep preparing and not give up; even if you do not get an internship, the preparation will definitely help. Solve problems not only to secure an internship but to improve your problem-solving skills and build your knowledge in subjects.
Sri Akshaya: Don’t compare yourself with others, be confident. Don’t be too stressed, because this is not the end of the world. Keep working and in time, you will get the fruits of your labour.
GT: Is there anything in particular that you did to prepare for Morgan Stanley?
Shruthi and Sri Akshaya: Most of the process was the same as most other countries, but reading interview experiences from GeeksforGeeks, and researching the company were extremely useful.
Shruthi: For example, it was only after going through GeeksForGeeks that I found out that Morgan Stanley asked System Design questions during their interview rounds. Therefore, I was able to prepare accordingly.
Sri Akshaya: Yes, though there was nothing else that I did in particular for Morgan Stanley, for the interview rounds reading experiences helped a lot.
GT: How was your experience at Morgan Stanley overall?
Shruthi: I’d love to answer this question. Every day at Morgan Stanley was a new learning experience. The entire process went over so well thought out and planned that I can say every minute of the day added value. And you get hands-on experience to work on real life projects and to see your work creating actual impact was amazing.
Sri Akshaya: This was my first corporate experience, and I was not very familiar with development and my areas of skills were data structures and algorithms. But the training they gave was exceptional and everyone was very helpful and proactive. It was a great community to be a part of and everybody was approachable. I learnt a lot and it was extremely fun.
Shruthi: One thing that stood out to me was the work culture. Even the highest position holders were so easy to interact with and it was such a great opportunity.
GT: If you could sum up all your advice for your juniors in a single sentence, what would you say?
Shruthi S: Keep your head high, no matter what. Definitely you will see the results one day.
Sri Akshaya: Don’t fix your mind on one company, as you don’t know what will happen in the future. I’d even say my luck was a major reason to land this role, so just keep working. Finally, I’ll say that if I can get a position, I know that anyone can.
GT: What do you think of GT’s ‘Intern Diaries’ series?
Shruthi: I love this initiative. It gives a huge platform for people like me to share my experience in a way that people can learn and benefit from it. I think that reaching out to many non-circuit related branches can broaden the series’ reach and help more people.
Sri Akshaya: I think this series introduces interested students to companies and internships. I myself have watched many of the interviews from this series in the past. I am grateful to have been a part of this.
The Guindy Times thanks Shruthi and Sri Akshaya for taking the time to share their experience!
