Best bank to work for in IT
There aren't many companies where an IT professional can be involved in 500 projects in a year. Or where new recruits are included in the most high-profile projects and encouraged to contribute ideas. But that's the case at Morgan Stanley, which has just won the best sell side IT award from Financial News.
New recruits at Morgan Stanley are encouraged to get their hands dirty from day one, says Jon Saxe, the firm's European CIO. "We make a real effort to talk to people and run programmes with junior and newly-promoted people," says Saxe. "That makes us a great place to work."
It doesn't hurt that Morgan Stanley is investing in cutting-edge disaster recovery and communications systems to help it cope in the event of future incidents like the July 7th bombings. The firm has also built a secure platform that allow institutional investors to conduct business online.
Banks like this are able to pick and choose the best candidates because they are such an attractive employer, says Allison Tibbatts, principal recruiter with city recruitment firm OTC. "People want to work in an environment where they're not just the IT geeks in the corner. They want to be somewhere that IT and business are fully integrated, and the best investment banks do that because technology is so critical to their ability to compete," she says.
Morgan Stanley a makes a great employer because it is willing to experiment with new technologies, adds Andrew Blades, a consultant with Anson McCade. "They're the kind of company that's using SOA, C sharp and .Net and will beta test stuff," says Blades. "If you want to keep your skills up to date, that's what you look for."
