Pros
The Consulting Group side of MSSB is extremely strong and sophisticated and stacks up very well next to any other large consultant. The analyst role is an excellent one for learning about the business. Analysts are highly respected. The attitude that pervades from the very top to the very bottom is one of long-term thinking, patience, and investment discipline. You generally won't find any people with their hands on their faces when the market crashes, or jumping up and down about some hot new investment trend they saw on CNBC - clear-headed, long term, above-the-fray thinking is the norm.
Cons
In branches, at least, it's easy to picture the old days of white male brokers calling and selling the latest stock pitched by the investment banking side, chasing commissions; and their female secretaries, probably hired for being meek, having no potential for advancement. It's truly not like that anymore, please understand - just sometimes too easy to picture how this all grew up out of it, and some biases and attitudes still linger because of it. This is just the nature of the industry. I don't think any wirehouse firm can claim immunity from this criticism.