My Spring Week experience

Physics student Salman Momnani from Imperial College London took part in the 2006 Spring Week for first years at Morgan Stanley. Here, he gives the lowdown on his week to student contributor Michael Olymbios.

Q: Can you describe the application process for Spring Week?

Initially, I had to submit my CV with a covering letter explaining why I think I would benefit from attending the Spring Week. I was then called to an interview, which was conducted by the HR department. They asked a series of competency-based questions, for example, 'Can you name an occasion when you solved a complex problem?'. After the interview I sat a numerical skills test that contained various tables and graphs from which I had to extrapolate data and make calculations very quickly.

Q: Was there a lot of competition for places?

Definitely! This year, there were 850 applications for 60 places. For the sake of fairness, Morgan Stanley runs two separate Spring Weeks, one for 30 people with financial backgrounds and another for those without. I was part of the second group.

Q: How did the week begin?

On the morning of the first day, we were showered with the bank's branded merchandise (pens, bags and so on) and given an overview of the week ahead. Unlike the summer internship,

Q: Were you paid to take part?

No. The Spring Week is a collection of presentations, networking events and interactive activities from several divisions at the firm, so it was less about working and more about learning about the firm as a whole. This means, unlike the summer internship, it is unpaid, but well worth it for the experience and insight you get into Morgan Stanley and investment banking as a whole.

Q: So what did you do exactly?

There was a big emphasis on teamwork. From the outset my group was divided into teams and set a question to answer on Wednesday in the form of a group presentation. Our question was: 'What makes a good recruitment brochure?'.

We also attended lots of presentations by the departments intending to hire graduates. For example, the M&A department gave an interesting presentation guiding us through the case of Morgan Stanley's defence against Philip Green's hostile bid for Marks and Spencer. As we went through the various steps of the strategy, we were asked to input what we would have done in the situation before being told what the bank really did.

Fixed income and equity sales and trading gave a tour of the trading floor and invited us to participate in a trading game in which we had to make much money as possible from trading Microsoft shares. We worked in teams, and had to decide what action to take after various news releases. Unfortunately my team suffered a penalty because you were supposed to have only cash at the end of the game and we had an open position.

The technology department ran a 'Who wants to me a millionaire?' style game in which I.T. related questions were asked. In place of the million pound cash prize, the tech team (sadly) offered iTunes downloads. The operations department also ran a trading game. This time different kinds of sweets represented financial products and we had to work in teams to take orders from someone representing the sales department, get this to someone representing the trading floor, and then check then deliver the right sweet (financial product) to the client.

Q: Did you meet other people working for the firm?

Yes. There were several networking events, which were mostly lunch with analysts, plus a specially catered dinner with some of the firm's managing directors.

Q. What was your impression of them?

The analysts were extremely down to earth and all took pleasure in working at Morgan Stanley. They all emphasised how much they enjoyed the environment, which was community focused, rather than the rigid hierarchical structure you get in some offices. I was surprised at how laid-back and welcoming the managing directors were.

Q: How did it all end?

With one-on-one guidance from the human resources department on useful tactics to use when applying for investment banking jobs and dealing with assessment centers. We were then given a fifteen-minute question and answer session with analysts from all departments. Finally, we were asked if we had any criticisms. Everyone was very pleased with the week and had little to say. The only minor point raised was that perhaps Morgan Stanley should offer candidates who perform well in the week a fast-track application for the following year's summer internship.

Q: So do you still want to work in banking?

Yes! I'm very keen to work in M&A.

How does Salman's experience differ from your own? We'd love to hear your stories of your Spring Week internships. Or your questions about how to get an internship for next year. Just email them to Content@efinancialcareers.com.