This Morgan Stanley assessment centre guide includes practice tests, top tips and insider secrets for success. We’ll walk you through each part of the day and show you how to prepare. Let’s get started.
The Morgan Stanley assessment centre is the final stage in a gruelling application process. They expect a lot from their employees and will only employ the best candidates that attend the Morgan Stanley assessment centre.
Let’s make sure you are one of them!
You will attend the Morgan Stanley assessment centre for half a day, so it is important that you are able to impress quickly. There won’t be much time for settling in or coming out of your shell. You have to hit the ground running.
Expect to face interviews and a group exercise at the Morgan Stanley assessment centre. Let’s go through the exercises in detail.
Morgan Stanley Assessment Centre: Interviews
You will face two interviews at the Morgan Stanley assessment centre and they are both challenging.
One interview will revolve around your skills and professional capabilities.
The other will be based on Morgan Stanley’s values and competencies.
Both of these interviews will be 45 minutes long. Let’s take a look at each of the interviews in more detail.
This interview will examine your skills and experience. Make sure that you know your CV inside out and can talk about your work experiences in detail.
They will examine your qualifications and ask questions about your studies. Try to explain how your qualifications will help you carry out the role you have applied for.
It is vital that you have a sound understanding of the job description. Make sure you know what will be required of you in the job in as much detail as possible.
Action point: Request a detailed job description from the HR department. This will form the basis of your preparation and interview performance.
Competency-Based Interview
This interview is going to assess if you are a good fit for Morgan Stanley. To succeed here, it is important that you know Morgan Stanley’s valued standards & behaviours:
Team building
Leadership skills
Communication skills
Pro-activeness
Assertiveness
We’ve heard from previous candidates that if you do not demonstrate all 5 of these you will notsucceed.
It is essential that you show that you are a perfect fit for Morgan Stanley. There is no margin or ‘middle ground’ here.
Here’s a powerful exercise which will help you prepare for the Morgan Stanley assessment centre…
Write down a list of examples when you have demonstrated the above behaviours.
Think of at least 2 examples for each. Be specific and detailed.
Memorise the list.
You must go into detail with your interview answers. Give as much detail as you can, as soon as you are asked. Don’t make the interviewer probe, offer all the information proudly and readily.
The next element of your Morgan Stanley assessment centre is the group exercise. This is often the most dreaded of exercises but if you prepare correctly, you will feel much more confident.
Expect to join forces with your fellow candidates. You will be provided with a budget and each of you will be given a department of the company to represent. You will then have 30 minutes to discuss which departments get a share of the funds.
This exercise has been designed to show the best and worst in candidates. It is likely that there will be fierce competition and it may be very difficult to gain the upper hand.
Pro tip: Half way through your exercise, it will be announced that the budget has been cut by 50%.
This is thrown in to push candidates to their limits and to see how they operate under pressure. However, you can use this to your advantage. Try to take charge of the group by advising the other candidates to relax and keep focused on the task in hand.
Remember, the outcome is not the most important thing here. Your assessors are looking at how you handle being in a group setting. The process is more important than the outcome.
Are you able to influence the others, without dominating them?
Are you a natural leader or will you disappear into the background?
If you’re serious about succeeding at your Deloitte assessment center you must take the time to practice each of the assessment exercises you will face at the event.
We can give you great tips and advice, sure, but it’s down to you to put the preparation hours in.
If there’s one thing we’ve learned from long experience it’s that preparation is the difference between success and failure. Successful candidates are consistently better-prepared than unsuccessful ones. The best time to apply for job at Morgan Stanley is during the spring week internship period in your university.