How to get fast-tracked as a junior at Morgan Stanley

Fast-tracking junior investment bankers is the new done thing, but Morgan Stanley has stood out as the one large U.S. bank to stick with tradition. This, however, is a misconception.

In fact, Morgan Stanley promotes all of its analysts within the markets division to associate level after two – rather than three – years. This programme has been in place for some time. In a world of ‘juniorisation’, where traders can hit managing director before they turn 30, this makes sense.

But Morgan Stanley has now also started promoting analysts more rapidly within its investment banking division. It’s now possible to be move up to associate level within two years, according to sources close to the matter, but you must be within the top 10% of your class.

The motivations for this are obvious. With most investment banks continue to their best analysts to private equity, and others departing for new vocations entirely after a few years in the sector, more needs to be done to retain the talent at an early stage.

One example is Linda Adefioye, who works in leveraged finance and senior relationship management in New York and has just been bumped up to associate having joined Morgan Stanley in 2014. In the UK markets division, Heather Cameron Watt has just been promoted to associate after two years, while Eoin Callaghan, who works in UK real money interest rate sales and was previously a campus ambassador for Morgan Stanley, has also made the cut.

Last year, Goldman Sachs said that it was accelerating promotions for its analysts, a move that followed programmes already in place at Citi and UBS. This proved to be the tipping point for other investment banks to follow suit – along with Morgan Stanley and Goldman, Barclays, Credit Suisse, RBS now all promote all or some of their analysts after two years.

There’s hope for IBD analysts at Morgan Stanley that the fast-track promotions may be more widely adopted. Both Credit Suisse and Barclays trialed fast-tracking in the U.S, for example, before extending it globally.

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