"The Pulse" --#27

SA 2025 interview szn is only ~1 month away! Don’t fall behind your competition by wasting time tracking applications.

Instead, use our Premium Database to gain access to 200+ banks/consulting/buyside firms. Venmo @HoosHelpers $50 and shoot us an e-mail @[email protected]. Additional details of the database can be found below. Gain an edge over everyone by accessing a wealth of recruiting resources and detailed explanations of the interview processes of each firm.

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Due to popular demand, we added a bunch of Sophomore Summer Programs offered at banks like BofA, Rothschild, and UBS. Find them on the database!

Recruiting Timeline:

Banking:

Where We’re At:  

• SA 2025: Houlihan Lokey, Union Square Advisors, and RBC. SA 2025 apps are quietly opening up as we finish the year. As previously mentioned, January will be a huge month for application releases.

• FT 2024: No new updates here. Credit Agricole and AGC Partners extended apps. FT recruiting is ~90% complete with most deadlines rolling off by the end of the month.

Newly Released Applications:

• Houlihan Lokey: Strong boutique with a great restructuring presence (SA 2025)

• Union Square Advisors: Smaller boutique focused on tech (SA 2025)

• RBC: Larger Canadian bank. Not a BB (SA 2025)

See below to gain access to our premium database, updated bi-weekly, which houses the application processes for over 200+ 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:

• SA 2025: This process is in the early stages. Only one firm has released an application and there won’t be others released for a few months

• SA 2024: The well-known/larger firms have concluded hiring for SA 2024. Very small/niche firms may release applications here and there

• FT 2024: FT hiring is over aside from any very small firms trying to fill an associate consultant position

Newly released apps:

• Plural Strategy - 2024 SA Strategy Consulting Intern

Apply ASAP if you’re interested!

Buyside:

Where We’re At:

SA 2025: Apollo and Altamont Capital Partners released SA 2025 apps with tight deadlines. Apps will continue to be released alongside banking. Expect January to be a big month

Released apps:

• Apollo: Mega-fund. Released Real Estate Credit role (SA 2025)

• Altamont Capital Partners: Middle-market PE (SA 2025)

• GTCR: Large, well-known PE (Summer 2025)

Premium Database:

The database is updated bi-weekly and contains 200+ 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

• 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 two weeks with the latest banking and consulting job postings. We released our 23rd 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 bi-weekly updates, you pay a one-time fee of $50 (Venmo @Hooshelpers) that grants you annual access to the updated database (You can enable purchase protection if concerned). If you don’t find our services helpful, we simply ask for feedback on an area we can improve upon and will refund your $50.

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

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Market Update:

Mortgage Market Makeover.

Gone are the days of 2% mortgage rates and purchasing homes for < $350K.

Today, we are discussing the current state of the $12.1tn (yes trillion) U.S. residential mortgage market. The infamous creator of the GFC in 2008 and likely the single largest investment made by the average American.

Some details:

• Home supply at all time lows

• Home prices at ~$431K (near ATH)

• 30-year mortgage rates at 7.95% 

• Mortgage origination volumes down ~30% from ATH in 2021

• Mortgage refinance volumes down ~89% from ATH in 2020

Let’s take a look at the change in median home price over the last 20-ish years:

Well, well, well. Homes are SUPER unaffordable today. The average monthly payment for a mortgage has shot up to ~$2,900 (more than I pay for rent in NYC) on behalf of 8% mortgage rates and all-time high home values.

Why has this happened?

1. No supply (when rates rise, it costs more to build homes. Homeowners are also less willing to sell out of their 2% rates)

2. Sticky demand from consumers and INSTITUTIONS (Blackstone Wants to Buy Your House)

When there is low supply and high demand, prices rise. However, home values are supposed to move like bonds. When rates are high, demand is supposed to fall and sellers are supposed to be incentivized to lower prices to facilitate a transaction.

What we are seeing is an influx of eager buyers from the consumer standpoint (primarily millennials) and a large increase in interest from institutions like Blackstone. It turns out that buying single-family homes and renting them out to average Americans is a very lucrative investment.

Is the residential mortgage market distressed? Not really.

Different story in other parts of the world like China and especially Canada 

Foreclosures are rising, but trending towards normalization vs. spiraling out of control. Stricter underwriting practices by mortgage originators and strong consumer DTI profiles have helped this (checkout our piece in "The Pulse" -- #21 for more detail).

Also, demand for homes is semi-inelastic. People often move for many other reasons outside of when mortgage rates are low (need a bigger house for a bigger family, need more space for XYZ, etc).

So, the resi mortgage market may not be in danger (excluding pure-play mortgage originators lmao), but it still blows right now.

Questions I want answered:

• What will break first, home prices or mortgage rates?

• If prices fall, when are lenders and home equity investors hurt (mortgage investors and providers of HEI)?

• Can housing affordability be fixed organically? In other words, CAN SOMEONE BUILD SOME FUCKING HOUSES????

For an interview, understand the state of the residential mortgage market. And remind your interviewer that renting isn’t so bad these days. They’ll feel better about shelling out 25-30% of their salaries.

Forecasting

Genius practice or useless? The great debate of the purpose and practicality of forecasting.

As a student, I thought there was a lot more science behind forecasting within finance. However, in reality, you’re literally just making a moderately informed estimate.

How do you forecast? What steps do you take?

Let’s say I’m tasked to forecast revenue growth over 10 years (common practice when building a DCF).

Here are the steps:

1. Determine the industry and assess expectations for industry growth (usually looking at research reports from sell-side analysts)

2. Assess previous revenue growth for the company

3. Take a deeper dive into individual product pricing and customer demand

4. Take a look at the macroeconomic environment. What does inflation look like? What does GDP growth look like?

Finally, combine your findings from the 4 steps above to arrive at a reasonable rate of growth to project revenues for the next 10 years. Oftentimes, you will apply a variable growth rate to the first ~5 years and then apply a steady, more conservative growth rate thereafter.

In finance, we forecast to get an idea of how a company may perform in the future in order to form a better opinion of whether or not X deal or X investment makes sense today. The practice of forecasting is akin to an artist putting a brush to a canvas instead of just musing over an idea for a painting.

It is super important to note that forecasting is NEVER accurate. The odds that someone’s projections will match future company performance are slim to none. Nobody can accurately predict the future.

One super helpful aspect of forecasting is determining if a deal or investment definitely won’t pan out. We often stress various assumptions within a model (such as revenue growth) to get a sense of where value can fall amongst a range of scenarios. If all scenarios produce a shit outcome, investors probably won’t do a deal or make an investment.

More than anything, I think forecasting just helps investors feel more confident in deploying capital. You can have more conviction when you think a number may come to fruition.

Going Forward:

We will be adding a tracker of when each firm released applications last year so that you can get a better idea of when specific firms will release applications this year. THIS WILL ONLY BE AVAILABLE ON THE PREMIUM DATABASE

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

We are happy to chat, review resumes, or help set up a coaching session

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“The Pulse” #27