How does the Executive Director role at Morgan Stanley compare to a Staff Engineer role at G or FB?

Dec 11, 2021 19 Comments

I know they are completely different roles and hard to compare, but would like to understand the difference in terms of career growth. If someone joined Morgan Stanley 10 years ago and is now an Executive Director, is it the same or better as being an E6 after 10 years from joining Google or Facebook.

Why do I ask? Because I am bored to death and rather than have fun going out on a Saturday night, I am introspecting and laughing at the fact that I was feeling sooo low for flunking IIT JEE in 2007.

But why ask about Executive Director at MS? You may have guessed it right, AIR 1 of 2007 is an Executive Director at MS, that's why 🤣

TC: 600K

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TOP 19 Comments
  • Google / Eng
    GNsp11

    Go to company page Google Eng

    GNsp11
    An executive director is REALLY high up. There is a zero percent chance staff matches up to it in responsibility and most of the time pay.
    Dec 11, 2021 7
    • Juniper / Eng
      Roadiez

      Go to company page Juniper Eng

      Roadiez
      Apple: It isn’t exactly that coveted. At least not at MS. One of my closest friends worked there as an ED in the UK. And this was a position he got barely 3-4 years after we graduated business school. He had zero experience prior to business school. So not exactly a very high level position. When he moved back to his home country, the best title he could get was that of a manager at some mid-sized company. As I said, I had 3-4 other batchmates who joined the likes of JP, Societe Generale or GS. One other rose to an ED level too and I think the other 2 were AVPs. The AVPs essentially did a mid-level change management type of role. The ED guy told me he made somewhere around 150K euros or so. Not exactly super high. I lost touch with them but as far as I remember, they eventually all exited the BFSI industry. The one from Goldman Sachs was the only one who made millions while still in his late 30s but I don’t remember his designation. At around 35 or so, I heard from friends he’d had a heart attack. He quit a few yrs after that.
      Dec 11, 2021
    • It has changed recently atleast at JPMC as I know. The bands for EDs are increased significantly. You can expect easy 450k for lateral hire. Remember banks are cash heavy.
      Dec 20, 2021
  • Google
    PundrSchai

    Go to company page Google

    PundrSchai
    As others have pointed out, ED is just another bloated title in finance industry.
    Dec 11, 2021 0
  • In banks titles are not for inflation but there is a specific system. No VP in banking company pretends to be anything more than engineering manager as a VP.

    Associate/AVP - 2 to 7 yrs exp - individual contributors
    VP - Sr Engg Manager/Architect/technical Leads - a VP could be reporting to another VP. Highest level VP is typically sr engg manager.
    Sr VP- some banking companies have Sr VP - that’s typically group manager some companies only go up to VP before director role
    ED - Director of Engineering up to Sr Director if engineering. Staff size can be 0 to 300 or so.
    MD - all rest levels are MD. There could be 4-5 level MDs. First level MD could have 1k-2K or so org size. First level MDs sometimes also go for M2 or D1 at FAANG. But life is pretty good at MD so you don’t feel to disrupt it.

    So if you look at the role of ED, you look at equivalent of Director or Sr Director in non-tech firms or tech firms that are not that big. If you are in FAANG etc, an ED would be Sr Engg Manager in FAANG. I have not seen EDs taking up staff engineer roles but they do pick up M1/M2 roles at FAANG.

    Depending on group/company but generally VP levels are the most laborers/long hours and most resilient.
    In banks once you get to MD you feel you have made it.
    Dec 11, 2021 0
  • ED in morgan stanley draws tc of 200-350k. It's the level after VP and literally everyone is a VP but fewer EDs. It's more a who you know game to get there rather than what you know. It's a very political place to be in from what I see. Cannot compare to staff engg at any faang. ED from morgan stanley also went to Bloomberg as a IC and was thrilled with the tc jump :)
    Dec 15, 2021 0
  • New
    Csdx58

    New

    Csdx58
    I know someone who went from ED at MS to Staff SWE at Google and he definitely considered it an upgrade.
    Dec 11, 2021 0