Pros
A lot of great people and a great platform. Pre covid, some of the offices had a fun culture. The covid response has been very good. Some of the US benefits improved with Morgan Stanley. Has a smaller company feel with a large company's resources. Some of the middle management is fantastic. If you get onto a great team with one of the good managers, it'll be a good job.
Cons
Ironically, US employees stopped getting stock awards with Morgan Stanley. Not even an espp! Some of the other benefits are surprisingly stingy. Add the 401k match once a year? Come on, you're in the business - that's a lot compounding power of that money the company is keeping for itself. The Morgan Stanley bureaucracy is stunningly difficult to work with. It can take weeks to get even simple communications approved. Gets in the way of good client service and support. Upper management does all the talking and not much listening, so the employee fundamentals don't improve. For example, there is practically no career path for CSMs. There are definitely favorites, and if you're not one of the lucky few, be prepared to stay at the bottom of the pile. That's why some people have been there for a decade or more but in other groups turnover is high. There's a turf battle with E*TRADE that's not pretty. Solium and E*TRADE were arch rivals and I don't think MS cared about what that was going to be like. Lots of legacy Solium leadership got pushed down a level so E*TRADE leadership could be inserted, which is not good optics.