Morgan Stanley

Tuesday(sorry about the delay, I've been busy), I had the privilege to visit Morgan Stanley Japan's headquarters in Ebisu. You may recall a few months back that I entered a 10 page research essay into a competition for one of two $7500 scholarships. Winning that money is what made this trip to Japan possible.

I arrived a few minutes early at the Yebisu Palace Garden Tower and got to wait in a very finely appointed alcove until the other scholarship recipient, a girl named Christine, arrived and Mr. Trapnell, the Morgan Stanley Executive Director who was co-ordinating the event, was ready to meet us.

Mr. Trapnell gave us a brief introduction to Morgan Stanley as a company and introduced us to one of his subordinates in Human Resources who later in the day gave us a very helpful talk about job searching in the financial services market.

Then we were served lunch. Over lunch we got to meet several very interesting people, including one of the foremost economists in Japan and a Morgan Stanley employee who had recently worked as a journalist for the Wall Street Journal. Lunch was fantastic. Even though I'm sure I made a fool of myself with my inept use of chopsticks, I thouroughly enjoyed the discussion of the Japanese economy and foreign relations. I haven't had such a stimulating conversation in a long time. It reminded me why I love studying economics.

After lunch we were given a brief tour of the building, most notablely the trading floor. It was interesting to see the endless rows of desks each set up with between 3 and 8 20" flatscreen monitors. I seriously envied the display of screen real estate. I also learned a little about what the job of being a trader is like.

After that we had our talk with the man from HR and got a chance to ask questions about hiring and, more important to our immediate future, internships. At this point I think that with the restrictions on my working hours it will probably be very difficult to arrange an internship but at least I got a chance to send in my resume and talk to some of the hiring people. After a lengthy exchange of thanks and goodbyes we went on our way. I showed Christine to Shibuya to meet with some of her friends (She's been living in Kyoto, not Tokyo) and then headed home to begin studying for my economics finals.

One of the most important things that was driven home during my visit was how hard those guys work. It has made me pause to consider, whether the fantastic pay would be worth the commitment it would require to earn. I would appreciate all of your prayers on the hard career decisions I will be making in the next few months and years.