"The Pulse" --#29

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

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We interviewed a BIG name in finance and will be dropping the interview later this week. Stay tuned!

Recruiting Timeline:

Banking:

Where We’re At:  

• SA 2025: Wells Fargo and BMO Capital Markets opened up SA 2025 apps this week. There have now been ~9 banks to open up their SA 2025 apps before the beginning of 2024. Crazy! Very tight deadlines within the next month, so get those apps in NOW

• FT 2024: JPMorgan & BNP Paribas reopened applications for specific groups. In 1-2 months we will be focusing coverage away from FT opportunities for 2024 as volume slows down for this hiring class

Newly Released Applications:

• Wells Fargo: Power, energy, and renewables group only (SA 2025)

• BMO Capital Markets: Diversity only application (SA 2025)

• BNP: App opened for S&T roles (FT 2024)

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: We're still very early on in this process. Only one firm has released an application and others won’t be released for a few months

• SA 2024: This process is over. Very small/niche firms may release applications since they don't follow the traditional recruiting cycle

• FT 2024: FT hiring is over aside from any very small firms trying to fill a one-off position

Newly released apps:

• Deloitte’s Leadership Allyship & Mentorship Program (DLAMP) - Lasts March - October and is intended for students graduating in 2026

Apply ASAP if you’re interested!

We're in the consulting dead zone right now so if you don't have an SA 2024 or FT role yet, jump on anything available

Buyside:

Where We’re At:

SA 2025: Riverside opened up its SA 2025 application. There have now been 7 funds which have opened up their apps including Apollo and Audax

Released apps:

• Riverside: Middle-market PE fund (SA 2025)

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

• Audax: Large fund opened up its private credit role (SA 2025)

Premium Database:

The database is updated bi-weekly and contains 200+ Investment Banking and Consulting internships/full-time positions along with:

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• 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 24th update today.

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

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Market Update:

Snapshot of the Global Economy.

Little bit of a different format this week. Today, we are going to provide an overview of the state of the global economy across the 3 largest economic centers (US, China, and the Eurozone). Notably, all 3 regions are facing completely different economic circumstances!

First, the USA:

The largest economy in the world with an estimated GDP of $23tn

Key Stats:

• GDP/Capita: ~$70,000

• CPI (Inflation Rate): 3.1% YoY

• Unemployment: 3.7%

• Federal Funds Rate (Interest Rate): 5.25 - 5.50%

So, last week’s piece discussing rate cuts in 2024 was pretty timely given the FED’s latest decision to hold rates still and cut up to 3 times in 2024 for an estimated 75bps ("The Pulse" --#28)

Compared to the rest of the world, the US is on a tear. Stock market clearing ATHs, the consumer looks strong (yet weaker), people are jacked up on AI, and the war against inflation is being won. The lesson to be learned?

Take everything an “expert” says with a grain of salt. This time last year, those bastards predicted a recession. Lmaooooooo. Shows how legit a CFA is.

Now with the rate cuts, the stars are only going to shine a little brighter as borrowing will rebound tremendously. The concept of higher rates has been beaten into everyone for the last year, so a drop in rates will spur a behavioral reaction for consumers and corporations to ramp up borrowing and make riskier investments.

However, in the near-term consumers and corporations are certainly going to feel some stress to their bottom lines as heightened rates slowly flow through the economy and lighten everyone’s paycheck.

Stock prices may be up, but it will be interesting to see how corporate earnings perform over the next 2-3 quarters before the first rate cut.

Now, let’s talk China:

The 2nd largest economy in the world at a ~$18tn GDP (much higher growth rate than the US).

Key Stats:

• GDP/Capita: ~$12,500

• CPI (Inflation Rate): -0.5% YoY

• Unemployment: 5.0%

• China Loan Prime Rate (Interest Rate): 3.45%

China has had a brutal post-Covid recovery and is currently experiencing deflation (we initially covered Chinese deflation in "The Pulse" --#24). Deflation is much, much worse than inflation as people stop spending money when they can buy the same goods for cheaper the next day.

“What the fuck is going on? I thought China was going to replace the USA as the largest economy?”

There are 2 main drivers at play.

1. Mismatch in post-Covid exit with the rest of the world

2. Poor policy decisions

China was the first country to report Covid when it broke out in Wuhan. Shortly after, the government locked down the country to fight the virus. Then, it spread to the rest of the world. Naturally, China was a touch ahead of the curve compared to everyone else and loosened restrictions in the back half of 2020 into early 2021 as vaccines were rolled out on a wide scale.

However, China loosened restrictions before a core % of the population received the vaccination (not to mention China’s lackluster health system). So, they screwed themselves as Covid re-ravaged China causing them to be one of the last major countries to loosen restrictions in December, 2022.

So, when the rest of the world had been opening up and spending money to spur economic growth, China’s doors were locked. Demand shifted away from Chinese goods and now manufacturers in China have been stuck with a gross amount of inventory—ultimately being forced to sell their product at sharp discounts to move it off of their shelves.

Couple this situation with poor policy decisions to pick a little “I tariff you, you tariff me,” with the US and China was left in a bad spot throughout 2023.

In fact, they have actually been cutting rates in an effort to spur growth:

Ok, moving onto the EuroZone:

This includes a whole consortium of countries with a total GDP of ~$14tn (please note this does not include the UK)

Key Stats:

• GDP/Capita: ~$40,000

• CPI (Inflation Rate): 2.9% YoY

• Unemployment: 6.5%

• Main Refinancing Operations Rate (Interest Rate): 4.5%

Europe is a wild place. There are countless cultures and languages, but everyone lowkey contributes to the same economy.

More or less, the Eurozone has mirrored the US’s economic performance, but just a touch shittier. On average, inflation has been worse, the ECB has acted slower, unemployment has been greater, and stock market valuations have been lower.

In fact, there isn’t really much for me to discuss here that is new or original.

Two topics of discussion are:

The Euro is historically cheap compared to the dollar as the value of the dollar has strengthened with the weakening of the global economy (see our piece about this topic: "The Pulse" --#22). Better book those flights sooner than later to capitalize on this.

And flux in oil prices are expected to body the Eurozone again this winter. Europe has been largely dependent on Russia for oil, but there is a theoretical embargo on Russian oil across European countries as the Russia-Ukraine situation unfolds. Which pushes supply down for Europe and prices up.

So, more or less Eurozone performance has been similar, yet muted to the US.

For an interview, be sure to explain how economies are interlinked and have a view on what divergence in performance across key economies means for our future.

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

Private Markets vs. Public Markets

Without a doubt, if you work in areas of finance such as investment banking or management consulting, you will certainly deal with both private and public companies. Understanding the key aspects of private markets vs. public markets will be essential for your career development.

We are going to take the lense of an investment professional within the private or public markets.

Private Markets:

• Company Size: $0 - $120bn (huge range)

• Type of Company: Most of your venture-backed or PE-sponsored companies will lie within the private markets

• Characteristics: Your AVERAGE private company is on the smaller side $5-500mm EBITDA, maybe only a regional presence, and usually focused on growth (sometimes at the cost of profitability)

• Jobs: Private equity, private credit, hedge funds, venture capital, and growth equity

• Hold Period: 5-10 years

• Strategy: Buy a large stake in a company, deploy revenue/cost synergies to operationally improve it, sell that company or IPO it at a higher valuation to take profit on the investment (funny enough, most value is just created from buying a business at a low multiple and selling it to some other shmuck at a higher multiple when the market heats up)

Public Markets:

• Company Size: $250mm - $1.0tn (equally massive range)

• Type of Company: Typically more mature, cash flow positive enterprises. Lots of investors comprising small portions of the cap table

• Characteristics: Your AVERAGE public company has a realizable business model with a focus on profitability to return value to shareholders. Usually much more of a household name

• Jobs: Hedge funds, asset management, most banking gigs, and day trader on WSB

• Hold Period: seconds → lifetimes (depends on the investor/shop)

• Strategy: Buy smaller stakes in many large companies across a diverse array of industries with the goal of performing alongside the S&P 500 index or marginally better than it. Very little focus on going into a business to operationally improve it

That’s a quick top-down of the private vs. public markets. Recently there has been a much greater focus on private markets as companies are seeing less advantages of being public + the flow of capital is moving towards the private markets.

There is no perfect situation.

Within the private markets, you have less liquidity and more pressure to actually help build a business. However, you have the control to hide your losses by not selling a business and there is the potential to be greatly compensated for your illiquidity premium.

In the public markets, you can exit a shitty position within seconds and never have to worry about actually building a business. However, you need to follow earnings quarterly and your decisions are tested in real-time where positions can evaporate overnight.

Going Forward:

Big interview release with a popular name in the FinMeme space coming this week. Stay tuned for some fantastic insight from a seasoned player in the industry.

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” #29