"Having had fantastic experiences through my 20’s with the Army, I decided that the time was right to face a new challenge outside of it,” he recalls. “That said, I will always feel that joining the Army was the best decision I ever made.”
Jun spent months intensely researching careers in the financial services industry, with the help of the Career Transition Partnership (CTP), and the broad range of careers, events and insight days advertised on their website.
Jun leveraged these resources alongside networking opportunities, to gain better insight into industry roles that might best suit his new life on Civvy Street. “After narrowing down my target industry to investment banking, I focused on the biggest names,” he says.
“Ultimately, I was leaving the Army to be challenged, so I wanted to apply to the top firms in the industry,” he says.
“Morgan Stanley instantly appealed to me because of the people and the company culture – the organisation has a very inclusive and collegiate culture, where people recognise that they are part of a bigger team and that they need to work well together to achieve the best outcome for their clients.”
Jun met members of Morgan Stanley’s Military Network who provided valuable interview advice and guidance. He applied for a position on the bank’s Sales and Trading Summer Analyst programme, a 10-week internship primarily designed for students in their final years at university. “The Military Network had reserved two spaces on the programme for ex-military applicants, which is how I found out about it,” he recalls.
Following an initial assessment, he was offered a place on the programme. “But, then a Managing Director who had interviewed me suggested that I might better enjoy a role in Global Capital Markets,” he says.
Several introductions were made, a few more interviews were conducted, and soon after Jun accepted an internship in the Equity Capital Markets team. “After 5 months working in ECM, I was offered a full-time position. I was very impressed by how the firm went out of its way to find a role that best suited me,” he says.
Jun highlights professionalism and resilience as the most important skills that ex-military personnel bring to civilian careers. “In the Army you hone a sense of determination and work ethic that enables you to prioritise the job at hand, while maintaining a positive attitude under difficult circumstances. Resilience gained from a career in the Army has also proved to be very useful in banking!”
Working alongside colleagues, Jun broadly describes his role as advising corporations, governments and investment firms on equity capital markets transactions – and then to help execute these transactions for clients. More specifically, he provides analysis and briefing materials for his senior colleagues to use when engaging with clients.
“I usually work on 5 or so projects at any one time,” he says. “My days are normally busy with a mix of client or internal update calls, progressing analysis and presentations, and preparing for transaction launches.”
Jun’s ability to handle multiple projects simultaneously and working nimbly amid an ever-changing and unpredictable global marketplace is critical. “Although the subject matter is a world apart from the Army, I have found that my military experience prepared and enabled me to be able to assess and prioritise what is being asked of me, whilst remaining calm throughout,” he says.
On sharing advice with ex-military personnel who are interested in joining Morgan Stanley, he adds: “I would advise anyone thinking of joining Morgan Stanley to do as much research as they can into the broad range of divisions and roles which the organisation has to offer, and then to start networking – this will allow you to get a much better feel for the role and firm’s culture. Be sure to do your preparation and homework in parallel, so that you can get the most out of each networking session.”