"The Pulse" --#65 / Interview with NonEquityPartner

SA 2026 interview szn is fast approaching! 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 $50 or pay with credit card (ThePulsePrep—Stripe.com) 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.

Video of Premium Database——>The Pulse Database Video

Looking for interview prep or a coach to help you navigate the process? Check the “Going Forward” section below for more details.

Last year, 95% of students coached received offers.

Recruiting Timeline:

Banking:

Where We’re At:

• SA 2026: Only one bank, HL, has announced the release date of its application (check "The Pulse" --#64 (FIRST SA 2026 APP) / Turnover in Finance (beehiiv.com) for detail.

  You need to be networking across the Street ASAP. We just refreshed our Premium Database to include contacts of VPs, associates, and analysts to network with across 200+ banks. Check below for more detail.

• SA 2025: CapM reopened its application this week. This process is 99% complete and we will stop tracking as summer 2026 volume picks up. The total bank number is at 120 for the SA 2025 season.

• FT 2025: TD, Raymond James, and Edgemont Partners opened their FT apps this week. There are currently 37 firms actively recruiting for FT 2025. Please reach out if you are looking for coaching!

New SA 2026 Applications:

• None

New SA 2025 Applications:

• CapM: Boutique, M&A focus (SA 2025; reopen)

New FT 2025 Applications:

• TD Securities: Canadian bank, adding to the healthcare group (FT 2025)

• Raymond James: Middle-market bank (FT 2025)

• Cantor Fitzgerald: Boutique, adding to the tech group (FT 2025)

• Edgemont Partners: Sponsor-focused boutique (FT 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:

• There was a hugeeee application release this week with some high-profile firms releasing their SA 2025 apps. There will be high volume through the end of September so make sure you’re keeping up and applying early and often! 39 SA 2025 applications have been released along with 36 FT 2025 apps.

*We updated the networking contacts in the premium database so take advantage of that resource.

SA 2025 released apps:

• EY Parthenon: Summer Associate Consultant

• ZS Associates: Associate Consultant Intern

• Alvarez and Marsal: Consulting Summer Analyst

• Putnam Associates: Associate Consultant Intern

• Simon-Kuchar & Partners: Associate Consultant Intern

• Altman Solon: Summer Analyst

• FMI Corporation: Strategy Analyst Intern

• Tuscany Strategy Consulting: Business Analyst Intern

• Quadrangle Consulting: Business Analyst Intern

• DHL Consulting: Summer Consultant

• Trinity Life Sciences: Associate Consultant Intern

• 2nd Order Solutions: Business Analyst Intern

• Alix Partners: Turnaround and Restructuring Intern

FT 2025 released apps:

• ZS Associates: Associate Consultant

• The Cambridge Group: Analyst

• Edgeworth Economics: Economic Consultant

• Putnam Associates: Associate Consultant

• 2nd Order Solutions: Business Analyst

• FMI Corporation: Strategy Analyst

• Health Advances: Strategy Analyst

• Tuscany Strategy Consulting: Business Analyst

• Alix Partners: Strategy Analyst

• Ascension: Associate Consultant

• Recon Strategy: Associate Consultant

• Windrose Consulting Group: Associate Consultant

• Ankura: Associate

• Sterling Associates: Associate Consultant

• Pathstone Partners: Associate Consultant

• Plural Strategy: Strategy Analyst

Apply ASAP if you’re interested!

Buyside:

Where We’re At:

• SA 2025: Two Sigma, Guggenheim Investments, and Rubenstein Partners opened their SA 2025 apps this week alongside a few others. This brings the total buyside count to ~133 opened applications.

New SA 2025 released apps:

• Two Sigma: Large hedge fund, quant research (SA 2025)

• Guggenheim Investments: AM arm of Guggenheim, corporate credit intern (SA 2025)

• Rubenstein Partners: CRE investments intern (SA 2025)

• MSIM: AM arm of Morgan Stanley, fixed income (SA 2025)

• Embedded Capital: PE intern (SA 2025)

• Illumen Capital: PE secondaries (SA 2025)

• Davenport & Company: Credit research (SA 2025)

• Victory Capital Management: Large asset manager, $169bn AUM (SA 2025)

• Abdiel: L / S hedge fund (SA 2025; reopen)

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 65th 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 $50 (Venmo: ThePulsePrep / Credit Card: (ThePulsePrep—Stripe.com)) 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!

Video of Premium Database——>The Pulse Database Video

Market Update:

Interview with @nonequitypartner (Non-Equity Partner)

Before jumping in, be sure to give @nonequitypartner a follow on Instagram!

We had a great discussion covering his career, advice for those uncertain with where to start, and the journey of growing an anonymous ‘finmeme-adjacent’ account. We hope you enjoy.

1. Why did you start ‘@nonequitypartner’ (Non-Equity Partner)? What are your goals for the account?

Quick anecdote before digging in, I started ‘@nonequitypartner’ while working in Big Law at a top 5 firm, but ultimately transitioned to investment banking and am now doing something entirely different, which I’ll touch upon later. 

So, I created the page back in late 2018 alongside a cohort of creators focused on white-collar profession-based content, or what we then-called ‘finmeme-adjacent’ accounts. In one form or another, we were all parodying that yuppie, Big City, corporate lifestyle. Some notable figures back then were @GS Elevator, @EBITDAD, and @Arbitrage.Andy. One of the first pieces of content everyone joked about then were memes centered around “the midtown uniform”.

What prompted me to start ‘@nonequitypartner’ was the need for a creative outlet to form some separation from the typical corporate grind. As you know, Big Law isn’t very conducive to having hobbies. 

I always had a creative background growing up and contributed to a ‘law-meme’ website during law school to channel creative energy. One day at the office, a colleague was sending me @Arbitrage.Andy memes and suggested that I should make a meme account.

Running the account has always been a labor of love parodying the aspects of Big Law & professional services that were funny and outlandish. Making fun of working long nights, turning comments on the weekends, etc were all elements in scope to be ‘memed.’ The account was always meant to be niche and I am surprised at how much it grew. 

I didn’t take it too seriously and treated it more as a fun side project. However, at one point I was on medical leave and while bored in the hospital bed I decided to really dig into growing the account beyond a few dozen followers. So, I expanded my content game with a ton of work and started collaborating with bigger accounts. My goal was to make a character profile “Bill Moore”, like TrustFundTerry or Arbitrage.Andy.

I’m still not sure what percentage of my followers see the parody within the name “Bill Moore” or if they actually think it’s my name.

“To be honest, you had me at first too hahaha”

Well, now I know the percentage is greater than 0! ‘@nonequitypartner’ became the best name for the account because it’s unique to law where people can earn a partner title but have no equity in the firm - it’s such a joke. I looked to caricature that same spirit of petty vanity in the voice of the character–parody, macho, work-obsessed, yet self-hating and nihilistic 20-30 something year-old working in Big Law. 

“Where are you looking to take the account?”

I haven’t considered full-time, like @Litquidity. But funny enough, Lit and I are business partners now investing out of Litquidity Ventures. 

*If you’re an accredited investor and interested in opportunities with Litquidity Ventures, fill out this interest form to be added to the syndicate: Litquidity Ventures Interest Form*

The account has gotten really big (big for the legal niche, that is - I’m still less than 200K followers) and I plan to continue producing content for the foreseeable future. I want to maintain my voice and relevancy, but it’s more challenging since I’m out of Big Law now. It’s harder to get content about relevant news directly, so I mostly depend on submissions from my followers. I also run a recruitment service and a compensation survey, but it’s challenging. 

My hope is to shine a light on the problems of Big Law and provide a common voice echoing similar feelings others have in the industry. I’m especially looking to edify and uplift people in the industry who struggle with depression and anxiety or suicidal thoughts and feel alone. The partner track isn’t for everyone and I think most people feel the same way. Everyone should always pursue their own path and joking about the industry can hopefully provide some reassurance that it isn’t life or death. My hope would be to put a smile on a few faces when they look down at their phones and to let them know that they’re not alone, even if the journey and the struggle feels lonely.

2. Why do you choose to remain anon?

At first it was obvious, being public would be a huge career risk because I’m making fun of my own firm and other firms–not good for the employer. 

When I moved to IB, it was a similar concern. At first I was on a VPN with a burner phone which was probably taking myself a little too seriously. It was funny because I was in a group chat with other meme accounts like @Litquidity, @BigLawBoiz, etc. and everyone was understandably hyper-sensitive about this stuff.

As the career risk has waned, so have some of the advantages of remaining anon. Doing business under the pseudonym of the account is a tough obstacle for folks when trying to do more serious business like syndicated investing or head-hunting. I am resolved to the fact that my identity will get doxxed eventually, but the big fear is you get doxxed by someone against your wishes. I became comfortable with the fact that I’ll be public someday, and the only person who will really care about it is me. 

I want my public announcement to be on my own terms, unlike what almost happened with Lit. It’s all a function of utility. 

@Litquidity got doxxed by Business Insider from a malicious leaker, but he fully embraced it. He turned it into a level 6 or 7 story with Dave Portnoy and Bill Ackman picking it up and commenting about it as part of a broader narrative around privacy and ethics in journalism. 

There is a lot of value in anonymity for the brand itself. The account hits a certain nerve for a lot of people which is relatable because it centers on unspoken truths. People project themselves onto it. People are always guessing and assuming and that really helps grow the account. But showing the man behind the curtain loses some of the audience when they no longer see themselves in the character. 

What’s funny is everyone running these meme accounts has remarkably prestigious pedigrees, whether it’s graduating from HBS or working at big funds. Before getting to know them, I had assumed they were a bunch of neck-bearded reddit mods, and that I was definitely the only normal one.

It always blows my friends’ minds when I tell them I run the account. One time I went for a lunch beer with my colleague and she said it reminded her of a scene from Parks & Rec–I turned that into a meme posted on ‘nonequitypartner’ and she came running back saying “look it’s us!” And I was thinking —like, well it is hahaha.  

-Now onto some career / recruiting-related questions-

On a separate note, when I started our recruiting service it was incredibly difficult to get recruitment volume. But what is helpful is getting the scoop from friends inside the industry to give them a perspective on the recruiting landscape. It’s a really pleasant second order effect. 

3. What brought you to law? Specifically, corporate law?

I went to a non-target, state school for undergrad and didn’t know what to do after school. 

I did know that I wanted to be in business, create something of high-value, and have intellectually-stimulating work. A friend told me about the IB recruiting path and I liked how it sounded. 

However, the IB ship had already sailed by the time I wanted to get on board. Being at a non-target didn’t help and I also didn’t major in finance (yet). So, I spent the summer after sophomore year really just digging into banking prep with the Vault guide, etc. I added finance and operations management as majors to my degree, and ultimately graduated as a quadruple major.

As a junior, I worked at a really small PE shop in my town which took 4-5 unpaid interns. A MD there, ex-Salomon Brothers and lawyer, told me that what I want to do is be an investor and that there are plenty of paths to get there–a good step for me would be to take a look at law. 

Law sounded so stupid, but I took a practice LSAT and took stock of investors and CEOs I admired—recognized the huge concentration of lawyers-turned investors and CEOs. People mock them all the time, but lawyers are sophisticated people with a well-rounded skillset. 

Once I could see a path, the first steps were easy.

Ultimately, I did really well through the application process for law school and landed a scholarship to a top school with a back-door recruiting process for an automatic job offer at a Big Law Firm. 

For someone begging for a banking / investing job—the law opportunity gave me a really obvious side-door into high-level deal-making. Fun fact; my application essay for law school was titled “I don’t want to be a lawyer.” The idea was to grind for about 3 years, get an understanding of the deal process, and then jump to finance as soon as possible. 

And that’s the exact playbook I followed. 

I took finance classes during law school with the MBA program and was a TA in the M&A valuation class where the professor gave me a recommendation for being a good financial modeler, etc. 

When I recruited for finance, I would tell people: “I will probably be the worst modeling associate you’ve met, but the best modeling lawyer you’ve ever met.” I was able to crank a model test no problem.

I eventually came to terms that I wasn’t positioned to get a big Mega-Fund role but secured a job as an MBA-level Associate at a name-brand firm (somewhere right beneath bulge bracket and elite boutique, well-known for a few elite teams), where we covered private credit. It was an emerging asset class then, and it’s been fascinating to watch the space grow over recent years.

When leaving my banking stint, I faced 3 offers: one for an elite team at a bulge bracket bank, one for the shareholder advisory team at an elite boutique with insane comp, and one for a mid-office blended legal/finance role at a Mega Fund. After some soul-searching, I came to terms with the fact that success in high finance would eventually require that I gave up ‘@nonequitypartner’, which I wasn’t willing to do. I opted for a 4th path, and landed a role as Chief of Staff at a startup.

After years of being laser-focused on getting a job in banking / investing, I came full-circle to my initial goal— working in early-stage companies. Being Chief of Staff gave me good operating experience, and vastly improved my skill-set as an investor. Today, I sit at Litquidity Ventures and also support a low-profile $50mm emerging fund.    

The bottom line is that there are a ton of paths into the ‘high-finance’ and other white-collar spaces. I’ve had friends who did the classic 2+2 career track, but ultimately we are all in the same boat of thinking “did I make the right decision?” Is this what I want to do?”

“How many years from undergrad to Chief of Staff?” 

I recognized the desire to work in banking right before junior year of undergrad. Flash forward 3 years in law school and another 3 years into my job within Big Law is when I recruited off-cycle for a MBA-level associate position in banking. Then, about a year later I took the job as Chief of Staff.

To get my banking role, off-cycle recruiting at the MBA-level, I kept a very detailed list of excel spreadsheets tracking deadlines, people to network with, etc.

*Sounds like an early version of our Premium Database!*

To crush interviews, I had to lean hard into the name brand of my law firm and really nail down my story. I also hired a career coach and enrolled in a financial modeling course. Alongside those steps, I memorized and practiced interview questions. 

In total, I had ~50 warm intros, which yielded ~25 follow-ups, 10 of those conversations turned into an interview process, and then 5 of those got into later stages. 

I worked incredibly hard to get the banking offer. For me, using law as a steppingstone into banking worked out, but I still encourage people to just go directly into ‘high-finance’ if they know that’s what they want to do. Once I had the bank on the resume, it was much easier to leverage my way into those other crazy offers I mentioned. Law didn’t necessarily accelerate my path into banking, but people really liked the law + banking combo as I leveraged that in future interviews.  

4. Admittedly, most of our readers are interested in careers in finance. Any words of advice for those considering either law or finance?

Restructuring is certainly the blend of both worlds. Huge respect for Rx attorneys. We always considered them to be the only “real attorneys” in Big Law. Closest thing to Suits for sure. The rest of us were just deal junkies or just outright villains in litigation (kidding). 

I think you should never enter law as a fallback option. So many people do that because they don’t know what to do and their parents told them at a young age “they’d be a good lawyer” aka “you’re extremely disagreeable.” 

Looking back, if you don’t know what to do in undergrad, I’d highly recommend banking or consulting but get started as soon as possible - especially if you’re at a non-target. If I did it again, I’d just start earlier. There are people well-suited for law, but not everyone should take hundreds of thousands in debt and grind years of 3,000 billable hours. 

Knowing who you are and who you want to be is the most important thing. Law, banking, consulting— all good paths to learn how to analyze high-profile engagements and do upper-margin work but I think many of us consider those more of a means to an end. 

If I’d done this when I was younger, I think my family and friends would say I wanted to be a business owner or principal of some type vs. a client service provider. 

By knowing I wasn’t fully committed to these roles in law or banking, I was able to index a part of my time and energy towards other things, like my meme account. Don’t over-index on the law or banking path unless you absolutely know it’s what you want to do.

So, go down the banking or consulting route for the broad experience and immediate paycheck, but always keep a few doors open if you know you don’t want to do it for your career. 

Thank you, @nonequitypartner! These were some incredible, honest insights into the law / banking atmosphere that I hope our readers will use to enhance their own journeys. If you haven’t already, please drop @nonequitypartner a follow on Instagram!

Let us know if you want to see more of these in the future! Let us know if there is someone specific you want us to reach!

Once again, *if you’re an accredited investor and interested in opportunities with Litquidity Ventures, fill out this interest form to be added to the syndicate: Litquidity Ventures Interest Form*

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

Banking vs. Consulting vs. the Buyside

This is a heavily requested topic. We wrote about something similar in "The Pulse" --#28 (beehiiv.com).

Each section is structured in order discussing work, pay, WLB, and exit opportunities.

Banking:

• Helping companies execute large corporate events such as capital raising, M&A, and restructuring

• Transactions range from a few $ million to a few $ billion depending on the bank, group, and type of transaction. M&A transactions are often the largest

• Work on deal teams ranging from 3-5 members (typically an analyst, an associate, a VP, and an MD)

• The experience is very robust with 95% of the day spent working in Powerpoint and Excel, although reading about markets and companies is also incredibly important to succeed

• Skills needed include: attention to detail, strong communication with team members / clients, accounting, and financial modeling

• The pay is great with base salaries between $100K - $140K and bonuses often 40-80% of base salary

• Work life balance can be horrible and is largely dependent on deal flow. Hours at bulge bracket banks often range between 70 and 100 hours a week with maybe 36 hours of total ‘free time’ on the weekends. Hours at elite boutiques can be even worse—often 80-100 with very little ‘free time’ on the weekends

• Exit opportunities include: private equity, hedge funds, private credit, venture capital, and corporate development

Consulting: 

• Helping executives implement new strategic initiatives. Everything from marketing plans to M&A—depending on your group. Consulting is much more strategy-focused than banking

• Consultants are staffed on ‘cases’ which can close in a few weeks or last for over a year

• Work on teams from 3-5 members (typically an associate, a senior associate, and a director or senior consultant)

• More time spent in Powerpoint than Excel, but comprehensive due diligence on companies, strategies, and markets is critical

• Skills needed include: attention to detail, strong communication with team members / clients, strategic thinking, and sometimes financial modeling

• Base salaries range from $70K - $130K (only MBB pays above $100K). Bonuses are ~20 - 50% of base

• WLB is better than banking, but dependent on your case staffing (50 - 75 hours a week). Some consultants “ride the bench” (aren’t staffed) for months. Weekends are typically respected as personal time, but traveling can certainly chew into your time. ~25 - 35% of the time includes traveling to clients / events

• Exit opportunities include: private equity, venture capital, and corporate development

Buyside: Best if you check: "The Pulse" --#28 (beehiiv.com) tbh

• Making money for your limited partners. You invest capital provided by LPs to make outsized returns vs. typical benchmarks like the S&P 500

• The ‘buyside’ is an extremely general term for the swath of strategies you can work within including: private equity, private credit, venture capital, hedge funds, and asset managers. PE, PC, and VC are ‘deal-focused’ while HF and AM is more ‘research / markets-focused’

• Work on teams from 1-5 members (research / markets-focused roles don’t require as much teamwork as ‘deal-focused’ seats)

• 95% of your time is spent in Powerpoint, Word, and Excel—greater focus on Excel here to model returns of potential investments. The goal is to convince your Investment Committee to deploy capital into investments you think will make money

• Skills needed include: financial modeling, forecasting, attention to detail, strategic thinking, and market aptitude

• Base salaries range from $85K - $250K (large HFs pay top $). Bonuses can be 0% - 200+% depending on the type of strategy and investment performance. Deal-focused roles pay closely to banking at the junior levels, whereas ‘markets-focused’ roles can be much more variable

• WLB can be better than banking or feel 2x worse. After all, PE is referred as banking 2.0x. ‘Deal-focused’ roles require more hours, while ‘markets-focused’ roles require greater attention between typical working hours. All buyside roles can be more stressful since someone’s money is at risk under your judgement

• Exit opportunities aren’t as generous as banking or consulting due to the specialization of the job. They include: other buyside roles and corporate development for those in a more ‘deal-focused’ seat

Going Forward:

If you run a club, we want to connect with you to partner. Please shoot us an email @[email protected], would love to make your club the most prepared on campus.

Coaching Details:

• 1 hour session = $50. (Venmo @ThePulsePrep or Credit Card: ThePulsePrep—Stripe.com

• 30-minute session = $30. Venmo @ThePulsePrep or Credit Card: ThePulsePrep—Stripe.com

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

Students we coached for SA 2025 have received offers at Goldman, JP Morgan, Evercore, and many other firms. Roughly 95% 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 (The Pulse) and Instagram (ThePulse) too!

Proudly Produced,

The Pulse

“The Pulse” #65