I was a VP at Morgan Stanley - it is simply a title that is bestowed on all more-or-less competent front-office employees who've been with the firm for about 5-

I was a VP at Morgan Stanley - it is simply a title that is bestowed on all more-or-less competent front-office employees who've been with the firm for about 5-6 years. Ie - there are thousands of them. Investment Banking hierarchy: Analyst - college graduate - 2 year program) Associate - MBA graduate or promoted Analyst - lasts 2-3 years VP - promoted associate (minium 5 year experience in the industry) Director - promoted from VP (after a few years) Managing Director - promoted from Director. These are the real rain-makers who earn a lot. Still - the firm promotes roughly 200-250 directors per year. Total number of MDs is probably a few thousand. So - saying that someone is a VP really means nothing.