"The Pulse" -- #88 / We Are Back with High Yield Harry

Recruiting Timeline:

Banking:

Where We’re At:

• SA 2026: Shea & Company, BNP Paribas, Rockefeller Capital Management, and BDO Advisors others opened their summer 2026 apps. 69 firms are actively recruiting for summer 2026 positions

• We are in peak interview season and offers are being distributed across the Street. Nearly every firm with open applications is actively conducting SuperDays. Please let us know if you need some coaching!

  How Have Interviews Been So Far? Would love to see how everyone is doing at their interviews!

  I have an offer for summer 2026 I have a bunch of interviews I'm getting cooked, ngl I haven't gotten an interview

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New SA 2026 Applications:

• Shea & Company: Small, middle market IB (SA 2026)

• BNP Paribas: Large French bank (SA 2026)

• Rockefeller Capital Management: Boutique (SA 2026)

• BDO Advisors: Middle market IB in Richmond, VA (SA 2026)

See below to gain access to our premium database, updated weekly, which houses the application processes for over 300+ banks/consulting/buyside firms! Gain an edge over everyone else by not having to spend countless hours tracking applications and deadlines.

Consulting:

Where We’re At:

• 57 SA 2025 applications have been released along with 64 FT 2025 apps. This process is essentially complete.

• 2026 Recruiting has started but is in the very early days. There are 3 open applications–we don’t expect MBB/Big 4 apps to open for a few months.

SA 2025 released apps:

• None

FT 2025 released apps:

• Compensia, tech & life sciences focus - Associate Consultant (FT 2025)

SA 2026 released apps:

• None

Apply ASAP if you’re interested!

Buyside:

Where We’re At:

• SA 2026: Bridgewater, Bracebridge, D.E. Shaw, and 8 others opened their SA 2026 applications. Currently 56 buyside firms are recruiting for SA 2026 seats 

• This week was huge for Buyside openings—specifically hedge funds. Plenty of $200K+ jobs here. All quick turnarounds for application deadlines so be sure to apply ASAP

New SA 2026 released apps:

• Bridgewater: Largest multi-strat HF, Ray Dalio’s fund (SA 2026)

• Bracebridge Capital: HF (SA 2026)

• D.E. Shaw: Large multi-strat HF looking for a fundamental L/S intern (SA 2026)

• Bessemer Venture Partners: Prominent tech-focused VC (SA 2026)

• PSP: Credit investing intern (SA 2026)

• Long Ridge: Small growth equity shop (SA 2026)

• CVC Capital Partners: Large European PE fund, secondaries intern (SA 2026)

• Hood River Capital Management: Investment intern (SA 2026)

• PGIM: Large investment manager, credit research (SA 2026)

• Voloridge: Small investment manager, investment intern (SA 2026)

• Capital Group: Investment intern (SA 2026)

The database is updated weekly and contains 300+ Investment Banking and Consulting internships/full-time positions along with:

• Interview tips for specific companies

• Interview prep material

• Applications and deadlines linked so that you can apply with one click

• Insider information about the application process

• Professionals to network with

• Buyside deadlines, interview prep, and people to network with for the sweatiest of students

We send the updated dataset every week with the latest banking and consulting job postings. We released our 88th update today.

Students we have been helping have already landed roles at Blackstone, Goldman, J.P. Morgan, Jefferies, Citi, and Solomon.

To get access to the database and the weekly updates, you pay a one-time fee of $45 Credit Card / Debit Card: (ThePulsePrep—Stripe.com—30% off) that grants you annual access to the updated database (please reach out for additional payment options). If you don’t find our services helpful, we simply ask for feedback on an area we can improve upon and will refund your $45.

This is a small investment for a huge payout when you secure your dream offer!

Video of Premium Database——>The Pulse Database Video

Market Update:

Today, we are back with High Yield Harry to chat about everything related to Buyside recruiting. Check out our earlier interview with HYH here:

First, a quick notice in light of the tragedy at Jefferies this week where an IB associate died likely due to overworking.

Overworking in this industry is a horrible commonality. Remember that at the end of the day, it’s just a job.

You should NEVER tolerate significantly unfair / inhumane working practices despite how ‘prestigious’ or ‘high paying’ a role may be. If you or anyone else is suffering in a sweatshop, do not hesitate to reach out.

Ok, onto our interview with HYH: Interview with High Yield Harry

Buyside Recruiting:

1. Can you briefly walk through the different categories of the Buyside (Private Equity / Private Credit / Hedge Funds / Venture Capital)?

Sure. Private Equity firms raise capital from limited partners (endowments, school teachers, asset managers) and buy companies, do a bunch of strategic initiatives (drive revenue growth, make tuck-in acquisitions, improve operating efficiencies, fire ppl), hold them for 4-7 years, and then return the capital. They get paid 2&20 on the capital they manage. Private Credit generally finances those folks with large slugs of first-lien debt they can put together very quickly. Hedge Funds work to provide investors with uncorrelated returns, and work towards generally outperforming indices. Venture Capital provides equity to startups in the Seed to Series A to late-stage range. And you didn’t ask but High Yield or Leveraged Loans focused shops buy debt securities and hold them in Collateralized Loan Obligations, or in a market-based fund. 

2. What are some of the merits about being on the Buyside? What are some of the negatives? 

I’m sure your audience will realize it sooner rather than later, but most finance people just do two years at a bank and then go buyside. People that go buyside like deploying capital, growing businesses, and making investment decisions; as opposed to doing a lot of sales work and working for clients.

Another pro is that given the $$ comes in the door from predictable, AUM-based fees, you don’t get the same type of bonus volatility that you see in down years of Banking. The main negative is you have to be right. You can’t make too many iffy investments, you can’t make a really bad investment. Some deals have “career risk” where you’re better off passing than making a mistake that will look obvious in hindsight. 

3. Why do bankers want to be on the Buyside? A bit of a blanket statement but you rarely see Buysiders wanting to go back into banking

I think a lot of it ties into the above. But your bonuses can be parabolic on the Buyside - if you rise quickly at a PE firm or have a great year at a HF, you’ll get paid exorbitantly. But outside of that, people like making market-based decisions and/or controlling their own destiny with the deals they do. 

4. Ok, so naturally a big incentive to jump to the Buyside seems to be comp-related. How does comp look for a first-year associate on the Buyside? I know it varies by fund and strategy but give us a quick look at salary range, bonus expectation, carry, and signing bonuses

I’d refer folks to the compensation survey I ran last year as a barometer of the data we were able to share. Since some of the people reading this will be following the IB -> PE route, let me share some color on PE Compensation. As you can see below the 75th percentile cash compensation for Private Equity VPs is very strong. And note that additionally, for VPs, we saw 35-40bps of carry for a massive fund and 150-225bps of carry for a middle-sized fund.

https://highyieldharry.beehiiv.com/p/2024-wall-street-compensation-survey 

These comp levels are even higher of course when you net out non-NYC datapoints. 

5. Let’s talk timelines. When does traditional Buyside recruiting start and what makes it different from banking recruiting?

I’m a credit guy, but it seems like PE recruiting starts at a much faster pace than when I started in the industry (during training, and in January of your first year in banking).

For Credit, you don’t start getting phone calls until you have at least a year of experience. A lot of IB Analysts have moved into private credit because the work process is very similar, it’s just that you’re now investing. I’ve generally seen Private Credit be hot year-round (outside of the summer), but peak hiring may have already played out. Liquid Credit (High Yield and Leveraged Loans) is very fluid but the bulk of recruiting happens in the Spring as firms decide hiring goals and after people leave post-bonus. 

6. How did you know you wanted to be on the Buyside? How is that similar / different from the traditional 2 years IB -> 2 years buyside -> B school / exiting finance / staying on the buyside?

When you have a non-target background (like myself) you have to take a bit of a non-orthodox path, but ultimately I’ve worked at a notable Bank and notable Buyside credit shop. I was very involved in our university’s student investment fund and took on a lot of responsibility there, so it was a no brainer that I liked that work way more than sell-side work. I think the key thing is that at some point, there’s no more stepping stones. I think if you like Banking— then maybe you want to stay there. However, if you like the Buyside and want to stay there, at some point you stop viewing things as stepping stones. If going to B School is a stepping stone, do that, but if you’re like 30, you need to figure out a career, not a 3rd or 5th stepping stone.

7. Ok, theoretically what is more replaceable with AI–a junior banker or junior Buyside analyst? Are banks or Buyside firms expected to weaponize AI quicker?

I would say top Buyside firms will move the fastest, followed by the banks, with the average Buyside firm lagging. The average Buyside firm is too thin to figure out AI quickly. But firms with an AI strategy are going to figure things out quickly (dependent on regulations). Go look at David Solomon’s comments on AI (Goldman Sachs CEO: AI Completes 95% of IPO Prospectus in Minutes). I would try not to worry about AI for now. It will be a tool for your career. If AI replaces every job, then we have bigger problems.

Buyside Hub / Your Journey: Buyside Hub - Home

1. So you’re building out Buyside Hub. Can I call it ‘the Hub?’ Anyways, what is Buyside Hub? What is your primary motivation for building this platform?

I think we’ll go with Buyside Hub, since there’s another Hub folks spend their evenings on. Last summer, I was taking a deep-dive on the problems I could help finance professionals. I decided to take a three-pronged approach. 

1. Compensation Analytics and Culture Insights: Buyside users are contributing verifiable compensation data and insights into the culture of the firm, in exchange for 12 months of free access to the site. 2) Jobs: We’ve built a very robust job board of buyside jobs that flow into the platform. We’re also working on moving in towards recruiting as well. 3) Our Board: We’ve built a board for industry discussions, with a focus on Private Equity, Private Credit, Hedge Funds, etc. 

My Compensation Surveys have been very well received, and there wasn’t necessarily a Finance version of some of the resources the Tech community has. I also found Buyside Compensation datapoints to be very limited on the site most college students/analysts would typically think to turn to. The average career is 42 years long - and like I said, a lot of folks are only going to spend 2 years in Banking. So, a lot of folks reading this will need to start thinking about the Buyside fairly quickly.   

2. Why is compensation and culture such a core pain point for Buyside recruiting?

Analyst and Associate compensation is fixed, but then after that there’s a lot of variability in what one makes. A $50k-$100k difference in comp is no laughing matter. But more importantly, deferred compensation and how much of it you should be receiving becomes a big pain point over time.

Every year, buyside analysts look at what they got paid, figure out what other folks got paid, and then see if a change of scenery is needed. The culture insights our users are providing are really important. Despite being a young platform, we already have some solid insights flowing in. It’s really important to get a fair shake of what the culture of the firm you join is going to be like and this site solves that. 

3. How is Buyside Hub useful to college students? 

An increasing amount of students are going directly to the Buyside, skipping banking altogether. Maybe this is better than having to endure 2 years of Banking?

Our Message Board is a great spot to ask career-related questions directly to Buyside investors, without dealing with the negativity that other apps may have. Even if there’s no immediate use case for folks heading into Banking, I added a free LBO and Returns Model to the site for all users. You’ll need this model either way, so I’ve got you covered. 

4. Besides Buyside Hub, where else can you see yourself?

Buyside Hub is really core to me. It’s going to be the foundation for my compensation analytics and foundation for my job board and recruiting. Given we’re all kinda on Wall Street for the money, this is going to be a very robust offering for finance professionals. 

Anyone who knows me knows I’m very competitive, and very dedicated to providing the community with value, so I’m going to press harder into anything that can help you guys out. 

And of course, I love making memes, it’s the best hobby in the world.

Thank you HYH! Once again, this was a fantastic conversation. We hoped you all enjoyed and be sure to check out Buyside Hub! Buyside Hub - Home 

Disclosure: Nothing written here is financial advice or should be used for investment decisions.

Synergies

How does a company make 1 + 1 = 3?

Synergies are a must-know for banking / private equity interviews where a large slug of your time is focused on M&A.

Synergies: ✅ 

-Upselling: Selling premium services and features to current customers

-Cross-selling: Selling different products and services to current customers

-New Geographies: Expanding to new geographies to find new customers

-Becoming Vertically Integrated: The Tesla model. Do everything in-house to unlock value

-Cutting Costs: Trimming the fat on operational costs to unlock greater profitability

-Managing Leverage: Renegotiating docs to increase borrowing capacity or reduce the costs of borrowing

These are a few different examples of synergies companies propose as a path towards unlocking additional value and most importantly ---COMPOUNDING performance.

You can't compound if you're not improving  

Going Forward:

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Please reach out to us with any questions about recruiting or if you’re interested in meeting the team! ([email protected])

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“The Pulse” #88