Introduction
Alex is an analyst in the Real Estate Investing division of Morgan Stanley Investment Management. Before joining the firm, Alex held internships at Newmark Grubb Knight Frank and Colony Capital. He holds an economics degree from the University of Pennsylvania.
How would you describe the firm's culture?
It’s about good people. In a lot of new jobs, you have to figure things out for yourself, but at Morgan Stanley, they really invest in you and make you feel like you’re worth it. My interview was comfortable and felt more like a conversation. When you feel like you’re just talking, then you’re left with the feeling that it’s a place you can call home.
Have you found mentors here at the firm?
Both senior and junior colleagues act as mentors. We get to work directly with senior members of the group, so it is great that you feel like you can reach out to them for guidance. Additionally, the junior members really help you get up the learning curve when you first arrive. They always make themselves available to questions you may have and help you develop as an analyst.
How did Morgan Stanley’s analyst training program prepare you for your current role?
The initial training includes many people from different sectors across the firm, so we cover quite a lot. The general training program focused on how to distill the main story when you have a lot of information to consider. We were given an introduction to the software we would be using and learned modeling in general terms. You get to hone your specialist skills when you join a specific field. There were also some social events at the start, to break the ice before your first day at work.
Were there any special elements of your experience or education that prepared you for this role?
I did real estate work during summer internships and found I really liked it. I also took real estate classes while I was still at University of Pennsylvania. It helped to know the vocabulary of the industry before I started.
You should have a broad overview of how your industry works. It’s not that you’re expected to know how to do the job on day one, but you need to be able to hit the ground running. Managers want to know you can learn the process.
Talk about your most significant accomplishment.
The most rewarding thing was being given projects that cover all aspects of the research process, like taking a potential investment, building out a model, doing all the research and due diligence and then making a presentation in front of the investment committee.
