I attended their women's drive, and I would definitely say that it was one of the best drives I've attended. Right from the tech park parking to their venue, at each and every step, someone would guide you so that you are not lost.

The day started early at 8:30 am. As soon as I arrived, they gave me beautifully wrapped goodies and asked me to be seated in their cafeteria. There, all the senior leadership – EDS, VPs, and Managers – welcomed and interacted with attendees to make them comfortable and answer any questions. This was followed by a good breakfast.

The presentation by one of their MDs on Morgan Stanley started at 9:30 am sharp. Then, they had a panel discussion with their VPs. In that discussion, the HR asked questions to their VPs about working for Morgan Stanley, the challenges they face, and how Morgan Stanley helps maintain work-life balance, etc. The panel consisted of 4 VPs and one HR, followed by Q&A rounds by the interview candidates. There were three large halls where candidates were placed, all connected through video conferencing. You can imagine how many people came for interviews, of course, for different roles.

All the good parts end here. Then, at sharp 11 am, their selection process began, and the actual mess started. In the hope of a systematic selection process, it turned out to be a nightmare. At 12:00 pm, they asked all Java folks to write a test. Since the crowd was too large, they started with the written test, which was not initially part of the selection process. Some candidates had already started their interviews, while the rest were told to just sit and take the test. The test consisted of a few multiple-choice questions entirely on core Java, followed by two coding questions. You had only half an hour for this, which I also believed was not an elimination round and that you would be called for an interview afterward.

The interview was another mess. They didn't ask me any questions on designs, OOPs, or even J2EE, only some basic questions on core Java. Then, another round was just a question on ArrayList with a basic program. The funny part was how the interviewer tried to confuse you, as if you were just a fresher. Having more than 5 years of experience, the questions should have been more challenging, and the interviewer should have tested you thoroughly.

I don't actually blame him; he was called by HR, and I could overhear their conversation that they just needed to finish the round in 10-15 minutes.

Such a bad process, right? You call candidates for an interview, and I agree the welcome and initial arrangements are too good. However, the main purpose of the entire process is to have a good interview. I was so prepared and expected good questions, but what they asked was really rubbish! I don't understand why HR would interfere with an interviewer's process or rush to finish as soon as possible. I have given interviews before at other companies, and while they might not welcome you this way, they ensure your interview process is thorough with standard questions. I had two technical rounds and one coding round, but I am not at all satisfied with their process.

Also, this might have been my experience; others might have found it pretty smooth. I waited for 4 hours after the written test to have my first technical discussion round.

1. Difference between concurrent map and synchronized map? No implementation details, just the difference.

2. Volatile variables and synchronization.

3. Final classes.

4. Callable and Future, and what they do.

5. Write a Java program for finding the first non-repeating character in a string. Example: you have a string "abcdeabc". Here the output must be 'd'. Prepare this question; they will definitely ask you.

6. Read a file for a sequence of input strings and print them in some order to an output file.

7. You have a list of integers using an ArrayList. Find if it contains duplicates. If it doesn't contain duplicates, then return false; else, return true. The second part was to find the duplicate elements.

I am sure the interviewer might not be very sharp. However, when you divide an array size by 2, he was asking to round off an integer, which would anyway be a round-off figure. I didn't understand what he wanted to prove; he is dumb or he is sharp!!!