Morgan Stanley has told incoming interns across the firm that it is planning to start their internships virtually this summer, as Wall Street tacitly accepts that the coronavirus pandemic has yet to sufficiently wane to allow for internships to safely begin in-person.
In a memo sent February 22 and viewed by Insider, Mandell Crawley, the firm's chief human resources officer, told incoming interns that, while he felt bullish about the outlook for 2021, the year's challenges remained difficult to predict. Crawley is a 28-year veteran of the firm that took over this year as chief human resources officer after running Morgan Stanley's private wealth management business.
As a result, the firm's 2021 internship program will begin virtually, entailing a mix of virtual training, remote work and projects, and ways for the interns to engage with one another, presumably online.
Other big banks have made similar calls about the status of their own internship programs in recent days. On Monday, Wells Fargo told interns in its corporate and investment-banking division that it would pivot its CIB internships to go virtual again this year, Insider reported. Those internships are scheduled to run from June to August.
Wells Fargo said in a memo viewed that its summer analyst and associate programs would unfold virtually, as would training for full-time analyst and associate programs, who would not be required to relocate at this time.
However, Morgan Stanley's interns might get a shot at some in-person work eventually. Crawley did note that, depending on how circumstances unfold, he is hopeful that there might be an opportunity for some interns to engage in-person, with opportunities that may fluctuate based on business line and location.
Crawley said in the memo that the choice to do work in-person would be fully at the discretion of the individual to decide whether or not to partake. He reiterated the firm's commitment to making the internships valuable experiences for their participants, while ensuring they complete them from safe locations.
He also added in the memo that interns would receive additional information from the firm's recruiting teams over the weeks ahead, and said that the firm was working to reconcile its desire to make the internship experience meaningful with the difficulties presented by current circumstances.
Representatives for Morgan Stanley did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Last year, Morgan Stanley became one of the first Wall Street firms to alert its class of 1,400 interns that they'd be virtual in a memo dated April 6, 2020, as the coronavirus pandemic threw summer internship plans into disarray.
Other firms on Wall Street are realizing that in-person internships may prove impossible in 2021
Summer analyst positions on Wall Street are a vital career development pipeline for college students seeking to obtain full-time employment upon graduation, and senior bankers have expressed concerns that virtual training lacks the substance necessary to adequately prepare students for what awaits them when offices reopen.
Nevertheless, Wall Street firms are begrudgingly beginning to recognize that virtual training is looking more and more like an inevitable reality this year.
However, that hasn't stopped some of the industry's most senior leaders to push back against remote work.
Speaking at a virtual Credit Suisse forum last week, Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon called virtual training for entry-level finance-industry professionals "an aberration," adding that remote work is "not a new normal" because it is in conflict with Goldman's "innovative, collaborative, apprenticeship culture."
"I don't want another class of young people arriving at Goldman Sachs in the summer remotely," he added, primarily referring to the firm's global internship class, which numbers more than 2,000 students.
Meanwhile, Morgan Stanley had a big 2020, inking deals for E-Trade and Eaton Vance and raking in record revenue. In January 2021, the bank promoted 171 people to managing director, which represented a more than 30% bump in class size from the previous year.
