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"The Pulse"--#54 / Feels Like 2021

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The Pulse
June 10, 2024

BUYSIDE JOBS (HF, PE, PC, VC). We are building something cool to streamline the full-time associate recruiting process for the buyside. If you’re unaware, it is 10x shittier than the summer analyst recruiting process!

Shooting for Summer 2025 release date (applicable for class of 2024) 

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 $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, 85% of students coached received offers.

No bread? No problem! Check out our referral program to unlock resume reviews, the Premium Database, and coaching sessions—for FREE! (see details in the “Going Forward” section)

Recruiting Timeline:

Banking:

Where We’re At:  

  • SA 2025: BBR Partners opened its application this week with Citi opening its S&T app. So far ~111 banks have opened applications. Please reach out if you’re looking for mock interviews or any coaching!

  • FT 2025: Jefferies, BlackArch Partners, and Baird opened their applications this week. There are currently 12 firms recruiting for FT 2025. Quick deadlines, so get those apps in! Next week we will be sharing advice on the FT recruiting process within our ‘Learning Points’ section

New SA 2025 Applications:

  • BBR Partners: Boutique advisory (SA 2025)

New FT Applications:

  • BlackArch Partners: Charlotte-based boutique (FT 2025)

  • Jefferies: Technology group (FT 2024)

  • Baird: Equity Research Analyst (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:

  • SA 2025: 14 SA 2025 applications have been released so far. Expect the number of applications being released each week to increase until September. 

SA 2025 released apps:

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

  • PWC: Business Processes Intern (SA 2025 - Closed).

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

  • Protiviti: Tech Consulting (SA 2025 - Closed)

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

  • Deloitte: Business Technology Solutions Summer Scholar (SA 2025 - Closed)

  • Berkeley Research Group: Associate Consultant Intern (SA 2025)

  • Oliver Wyman: Summer 2025 Intern (SA 2025)-Closed

  • Bain: Associate Consultant Intern (SA 2025)

  • Cavi Consulting: Consulting Associate Internship (SA 2025)

  • McKinsey: Summer Business Analyst (SA 2025)

  • BCG: Associate Consultant Intern (SA 2025)

  • Redstone Strategy Group: Consulting Intern (SA 2025)

  • KPMG: All Practices including management consulting (SA 2025)

Apply ASAP if you’re interested!

Buyside:

Where We’re At:

SA 2025: Quantum Legacy Partners opened its SA 2025 app this week alongside the re-opening of apps for Kline Hill Partners. So far ~96 buyside shops have opened applications

SA 2025 released apps:

  • Quantum Legacy Partners: PE (SA 2025)

  • Kline Hill Partners: PE secondaries (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 54th 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:

Feels Like 2021

The stock market is ripping, crypto is up, meme stocks are back, Keith Gil is back, and tech-enabled hype is real (AI in 2024 / metaverse in 2021).

Speculation. Rampant across the market at the moment.

Keith Gil (Legend)

So, what’s different today?

  • First of all, the federal funds rate in 2021 was 0.1%. Today the federal funds rate is 5.25-5.50%. Inherently, this makes the cost of borrowing tremendously more expensive and should discourage growth and investment (activities which require the use of capital).

  • Second, we aren’t actively battling Covid anymore. The world is open, you can fly anywhere without concern of pandemic-related restriction.

  • Third, the government isn’t printing money like they were in 2021.

  • Fourth, AI is a more realistic technological development than the metaverse. Anyone can fire up ChatGPT in seconds. In 2021, you couldn’t really access the metaverse unless you had an Oculus. Also, the metaverse was more like a playground whereas AI is touted as being more practical for people and businesses.

  • Fifth, geopolitical tension. Touched upon this in "The Pulse" --#51 / Total Market Factor Index (beehiiv.com)

  • Sixth, Presidential elections (U.S. & globally).

For the record, in 2021 the main concern was Covid and the benefit was free money from the government.

Sitting inside all day, collecting free money, and having nowhere else to park cash (reference the 0.1% federal funds rate discussed above) was a perfect breeding ground for speculation.

Also, outside of the pandemic (which was manageable at that point), there really weren’t many pockets of uncertainty in the world. Not much global conflict and election season was the previous year (2020).

So, with all of the uncertainty today and the opportunity to earn solid 5+% returns in safer investments, why is there so much speculation going on?

A few reasons:

  • People and businesses did a good job locking in low rates in 2020 and 2021

  • Pandemic-era stimulus isn’t directly hitting bank accounts anymore, but a good portion was locked away in savings/investments

  • Cycles are tightening

Refinancing volume in 2020 and 2021 was insane. Check out the graph below detailing refi volume for U.S. residential mortgages:

$tns in refi volume in 2020 & 2021 (Source: Statista)

Corporate bond and loan refi volumes looked similar too. Therefore, rising interest rates haven’t been incredibly harmful. Fixed rate debt is still mostly protected on the corporate side (5-10yr bonds) and is completely protected on the consumer side (30-year mortgages).

Also, people still have a ton of stimulus money lying around:

U.S. Money Market Fund Volume (Source: OFR)

As mentioned before ("The Pulse" --#51 / Total Market Factor Index (beehiiv.com), the personal savings rate is substantially lower than the pandemic-era, but the amount of money saved a few years ago was substantial enough to maintain strong balances today.

Money market funds more or less track the return of the federal funds rate and are liquid products for people to access to invest in other areas (crypto, meme stocks, AI, etc).

Nobody is every satisfied and fomo is real. It takes a few seconds to place a trade through an app on my phone. That luxury is new. It wasn’t available even 15 years ago. I’ll save the deep analysis for another day, but cycles are tightening with the ease of information and access to markets.

The bottom line is that more money available compared to the pre-pandemic era and fomo, with access to execute, are fueling today’s speculation. The danger is that speculating now is inherently riskier given greater interest rates and global uncertainty.

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

Learning Point of the Week:

Managing Expectations (helpful for interns)

As an intern, you’ll often hear the phrase ‘managing expectations’ which essentially means putting out fires left and right with your various staffings.

Many interns aren’t really grinding live deals because they’re only at the firm for 9-10 weeks. However, you’ll have plenty of other tasks to do like updating pricing models, managing the group’s deal pipeline, grabbing coffees, and scratching out one-off analysis.

These efforts chew up your time. Also, they will likely be conflicting. In this business, you’re either chillin with jack shit going on or you’re absolutely swamped. There is never a middle ground.

So, the best way to manage expectations is to clearly communicate all the different items you’re working on with a). those you’re doing the task for and b). your intern manager.

When two items directly overlap one another, just ask the most senior person relevant to the task: “which item should I prioritize?” Usually this will be an associate or VP. Don’t start spamming your MD about the bullshit you have to do.

Then, communicate to the respective people you’re working for: “Hey, I’m working on item A for you and item B for X person. I need to prioritize item B because X person really needs it before X date and Y person also suggested I should focus on it.”

Yes, managing expectations seems really stupid when we have teams and outlook calendars readily available. However, nobody gives a shit about your calendar as an intern. And nobody is going to pay much attention to what you’re working on until they need it.

Use your voice. Speak up and communicate clearly to your team. Don’t blindly assume more work.

Going Forward:

Want to make some bread selling the database or coaching other students? Shoot us an email and we would love to work with you.

Last year, we paid $ thousands to our members who helped sell the database.

Coaching Details:

Students we coached for SA 2025 have received offers at Goldman, JP Morgan, Evercore, 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 (The Pulse) and Instagram (ThePulse) too!

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The Pulse

“The Pulse” #54