Sales & Trading

My initial application process was from on-line application. There were 3 online tests to be completed. After a few days, I was contacted via email to have a first round phone interview in a week time.

Morgan Stanley (UK) S&T first round consists of 2 30-minutes interview with 2 different assessors. In my case, I had mostly competency and little of technical questions

I first started by brushing up the stories of the project experiences that I had on the CV. Because one of my project involved, organising a fashion show in Middle East, I've made sure I could talk about every competency aspect that I've demonstrated through that experience. (ie teamwork, decision making, communication, determination, passion...)

Then, after looking through the web for other frequently asked interview questions, I've applied to have a mock interview in my university. This mock interview helped me alot! I would recommend every people to have a mock interview service first as the experienced response from the interviewer can give tremendous insight into ways to improve your delivery of answers across.

My first interviewer was by a Fixed Income Strategy desk manager. He had been in MS for more than 9 years and is currently looking over multiple trading desks and giving strategical advises which are focused on UK market. A very friendly person. Questions were mostly competency based and revolved alot around the fashion show project for me. It was more like a conversation and just about getting to know me.
-Tell me about your background.
-Why are you interested in MS?
-Why S&T?
-What are you currently doing with the project?
Also, there was a trading competition that I've got a first place and so,
-What were your strategy?
-How was the outcome?
For a technical question he asked me for ways to hedge for an airline company. If you'd think about what constitutes a cost for an airline company, you would know what to hedge for.
-New thing I've learned is that weather conditions could be traded too. (Weather futures)

Next interview was by a person from Global Equity Sales desk. It was more like a pressure interview this time where she was completely silent other than times when she asks questions. It involved alot of competency based questions:
-Why made you got interested into this industry?
-Teamwork, what kind of conflicts has happened? What did you do and how was the outcome?
-What are the innovative solutions that you've came up?
-How would you rate your academic performance and what would you do to improve them?
-Describe about the times when you had to make decision under pressure.
-What are your view on the US stock market? What are the important factors that you think would drive the market?
-Describe about a stock that you are interested in at the moment.
There was a short questioning time but it led onto more questions asked about myself. She said she was busy and it finished on exactly on 30 minutes mark.

However I did not get onto the next stage of the process. It was probably because I was nervous throughout the interview process as it was my first time getting interviewed and you would want the S&T person to be confident in communication. I would suggest practising getting interviewed or reflecting on interview simulations, if you're nervous like me. Do it for 5-10 times.