"The Pulse" --#39

Biggest Sale of the Season! From now until April 1st, we will be running a 30% sale for the purchase of our Premium Database. This is our biggest sale of the SA 2025 recruiting season and can be captured by venmoing @ThePulsePrep $35

SA 2025 interview szn is HERE! 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 @ThePulsePrep $35 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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Also, big shoutout to @fivefinance! Be sure to check them out for daily news about everything finance. Keeping informed can make the difference between receiving an offer or getting cut. 

Daily finance news curated by a team of analysts at Goldman Sachs, Centerview Partners, EY, and more. Stay up to date with the finance world by accessing their expert analysis on the current finance news!

Recruiting Timeline:

Banking:

Where We’re At:  

• SA 2025: CIBC, BNP Paribas, Greenhill, and PEI Global Partners all opened applications this week alongside a few other banks. So far ~71 banks have opened applications with apps open at every EB and BB besides Goldman Sachs (opens March 1st). Interviews are happening across the Street and will continue throughout March. Please reach out if you’re looking for mock interviews or any coaching!

• Word of advice: don’t get caught up in the noise of your peers getting interviews and offers before you. A career is a long road and securing an internship is just a small step towards your success. Take a deep breath and blaze your own trail

Newly Released Applications:

• Greenhill: Elite boutique, recently acquired by Mizuho in 2023 (SA 2025)

• CIBC: Large Canadian bank (SA 2025)

• BNP Paribas: Large French bank (SA 2025)

• PEI Global Partners: Small boutique (SA 2025)

See below to gain access to our premium database, updated 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: SA 2025:  Five applications have been released, and there will be a large wave of apps opening in March. At this point, you should feel very comfortable with behavioral questions and case studies. You should be able to speak on what makes each firm you're applying to unique/compelling.

SA 2025 released apps:

• KPMG: Advisory Intern, Deal Advisory - Financial Due Diligence (SA 2025)

• PWC: Business Processes Intern (SA 2025).

• Curtis & Co: Boutique firm (SA 2025 - Closed)

• Protiviti: Tech Consulting (SA 2025)

• RSM: Tech, Risk, and Business Improvement Intern (SA 2025)

Apply ASAP if you’re interested!

Buyside:

Where We’re At:

SA 2025: Ruanne, Cunniff, & Goldfarb and Atalaya Capital Management opened SA 2025 apps this week. So far ~48 buyside shops have opened applications, with many interviews underway at many firms

Released apps:

• Ruanne, Cunniff, and Goldfarb: Multi-strategy investment firm (SA 2025)

• Atalaya Capital Management: Middle market PE firm looking for a special situations intern (SA 2025)

Premium Database:

The database is updated 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

• 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 39th 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 $35 (Venmo @ThePulsePrep) 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 $35.

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

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Market Update:

Wage Growth, the Real Backbone of the Economy

Everyone bitches about inflation, but no one is talking about the healthy wage growth hitting the pockets of the average employed American.

Inflation reduces your buying power, effectively making you poorer. However, with today’s wage growth around 5% and inflation around 3%, your buying power should be greater. When your buying power is greater, do you spend or save?

Most people spend more.

Thankfully, spending makes up roughly 2/3 of the U.S. GDP. Therefore, the U.S. economy has really benefited from wage growth outpacing inflation. It can be easy to get caught up about inflation, but inflation without context is just a number. Technically, if inflation fell to the coveted 2% and wage growth was like 1% or even negative, our economy would perform poorly because we would have less buying power.

Wait, where has this wage growth come from? A few directions:

1. Most companies are performing very well. Strong liquidity and solid profitability are a couple of factors playing into this. Great company performance = better pay for employees

2. Tight labor market. Unemployment is still hovering around 3.7%, which is historically low. When companies can’t find employees, they increase incentives to work there—including pay (important to note that the dynamic is changing as layoffs are rippling through many industries including finance and tech)

3. Job hopping. The quiet resignation of 2020 and 2021 led to many employees jumping from job to job. Statistically, job hopping leads to better pay

Employment data tends to be a lagging indicator. Real unemployment is likely greater than 3.7% and wage growth is likely a touch overstated as the economy slows from the wild times of 2020 and 2021. Nevertheless, with inflation hovering at ~3% wage growth may dip slightly but should continue to outpace inflation. 

With wage growth above inflation, is our economy destined to maintain outperformance? Absolutely not.

Wage growth is great, but also poses some danger. Remember when I mentioned that increased buying power = increased spending. Well increased spending = greater inflation. Fuck!

Perfection lies in balance. The worst case scenario is that the FED prematurely cuts rates and inflation jumps higher again. The economy will not like that scenario. Therefore, true economic stress would need to be felt before the FED makes that first rate cut.

Our prediction stands for the first cut in 2H24, as mentioned in "The Pulse" -- #25 (beehiiv.com) and "The Pulse" --#28 (beehiiv.com).

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

Different Roles Within Banking (IB vs. S&T vs. ER vs. AM)

Many of you are applying to SA 2025 positions.

Many of you probably only know about IB since the pay and exit opportunities tend to be the best.

Many of you may not know what investment banking actually is and what makes it different from other popular banking roles such as sales & trading, equity research, and asset management (which is completely fine btw).

Today, we will provide some transparency on the different roles within banking.

Investment Banking: Organizing transactions for large companies (M&A, debt financing, equity financing, some general corporate advisory)

• The best pay, the best exit opportunities, and the shittiest hours

• Typically work within one corporate vertical (tech, diversified industries, FIG, etc) or one product group (lev fin, M&A, etc) and help arrange large corporate transactions

• As an analyst you work heavily within Powerpoint and Excel. In Powerpoint you focus on building pitch decks and transaction overviews. In Excel, you focus on valuation

• In investment banking, money is made on the fees generated from arranging these transactions for clients

Sales & Trading: Selling securities to clients or trading securities on behalf of different buyside participants. May sit on the “public” or “private” side of the bank’s information barrier

• Solid pay (typically lighter than IB since hours worked usually = greater pay, but some traders make crazy bread Macquarie Commodities Trader Made $61mm in 2 Years), some exit opportunities, and mostly market hours

• Typically work within one asset class (commodities, distressed debt, high yield bonds, etc) and either pitch securities sales ideas to clients or trade securities on behalf of clients

• As an analyst, you work within Powerpoint and Excel, but there is less emphasis on these tools compared to investment banking. Instead, much of your time may be spent on the Bloomberg Terminal pinging clients and quoting prices for securities

• In sales and trading, money is made on the fees generated from facilitating trades for clients or selling securities to clients

Equity Research: Selling research to institutional investors (or anyone with a ton of bread) and conducting bespoke deep dives for different groups within the bank (for example, providing an updated industry analysis for a specific vertical as requested by an MD in IB). Sit solely on the “public” side of the bank’s information barrier

• Mid pay compared to other banking jobs (bonuses can be light), some exit opportunities to hedge funds, and better hours than IB (can be really shitty around events like earnings calls)

• Typically work within one corporate vertical, asset class, or strategy (macroeconomic research, country-specific research, long-only research, etc)

• As an analyst, you work heavily within Excel (modeling can be much more nuanced than IB) and Word to write research reports

• In equity research, money is made by selling research subscriptions and reports to institutional investors

Asset Management: Investing funds and managing mostly financial assets on behalf of large clients (pension funds, family offices, high net worth individuals, etc)

• Solid pay, good exit opportunities, and tough hours but not as brutal as IB

• Typically work within one strategy (private equity, private credit, CLO, etc) or on behalf of one type of client (only family offices for example)

• As an analyst, you may work in either Powerpoint or Word to draft investment memos while Excel work will vary depending on the type of strategy. For example, regarding private equity as an investment strategy, some banks like GS and MS have very active AM arms that act similar to actual PE funds (buying and selling companies) while AM arms at other banks may just “invest in private equity” (be an LP across different funds)

• In asset management, money is made on performance fees by beating some benchmark and management fees which are generated as a % of the total $ managed (known as AUM)

For whatever reason, IB captures the spotlight for most sophomores, but not everyone is geared for IB. Our recommendation is to pursue whatever role aligns best with your interests and personality. Enjoying your work should always triumph trivial consideration of “prestige” and total compensation.

Going Forward:

The “Pay for 3, get 1 FREE” coaching deal has ended. However, coaching will continue. Check out the details below to set up a session:

• 1 hour session = $50. Venmo @ThePulsePrep

• 30-minute session = $30. Venmo @ThePulsePrep

• Email us with your availability and we will be happy to schedule a session @[email protected] 

Students we coached have received offers at Goldman, JP Morgan, Blackstone, and many other firms. Roughly 85% of those coached received offers last year!

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

Check us out on LinkedIn too! The Pulse

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“The Pulse” #39