Summer 2027 recruiting is closing for IB and Buyside roles. If you don’t have an offer yet, you need to be re-focusing your strategy on recruiting across middle markets, regionals, and small boutiques. The “no-name” firms.
Getting an interview at these firms is not easy. They often take very few interns each year. Being first to the app will literally help put your resume into a different pile.
We are running a FINAL Premium Database sale. 30% off until March 7th. $45 Premium Database.
This grants you access to:
Apps updated weekly and delivered directly to your inbox across 500+ firms
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Recruiting Timeline:
Banking:
Where We’re At:
SA 2027: Keybank, PEI Global, and AGC Partners opened their applications this week. 86 banks are actively recruiting for SA 2027.
If you need some interview support or just need a place to vent, check out our Coaching Program: Investment Banking Interview Coaching | The Pulse. 95%+ of those coached for the summer 2026 recruiting season received offers!
New SA 2027 Applications:
Keybank: Ohio-based regional bank (SA 2027)
PEI Global Partners: Infrastructure boutique (SA 2027)
AGC Partners: M&A boutique (SA 2027)
See below to gain access to our premium database, updated weekly, which houses the application processes for over 300+ 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:
Only boutiques are opening applications at this point. We will stop tracking these processes in March.
SA 2026 released apps:
None
SA 2027 released apps:
None
FT 2026 released apps:
Jump Associates - Associate Strategist (FT 2026)
Buyside:
Where We’re At:
SA 2027: Altamont Capital Partners and Apogem Investments opened their apps this week. There are currently 73 buyside firms actively recruiting for SA 2027.
Buyside Associate Recruiting: Trivest Partners, Accel-KKR, and HIG Growth are all actively recruiting. This is a section dedicated towards providing updates for our post-grad Buyside Associate Recruiting platform: Buyside Recruiting & Interview Prep Platform | The Pulse.
If you’re a senior or first year analyst looking to get the fuck out of banking—-you need to be on this platform. Live job updates and 14+ LBO modeling case studies with answers
New SA 2027 released apps:
Apogem: NY Life PE arm (SA 2027)
Altamont Capital Partners: LMM PE (SA 2027)
New Buyside Associate released apps:
Trivest Partners: Miami-based PE (summer 2027 start)
Hunter Point Capital: Secondaries PE (summer 2027 start)
Accel-KKR: Tech buyout PE (summer 2027 start)
MS Tactical Value: Special sits arm of MS (summer 2027 start)
HIG Growth: Growth equity arm of HIG (summer 2027 start)
Premium Database:
The database is updated weekly and contains 300+ Investment Banking and Consulting internships/full-time positions along with:
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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 142nd 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:
Leveraged Loan Dispersion
Ever wonder why CCCs trade so much wider from higher rated loans?
-Background-
Source: Oaktree
We’ve written about bond and leveraged loan spreads a handful of times. The general theme in credit today is that spreads are tight, but total income is strong.
This is mostly true. In 2022, base rates increased materially for the first time in over a decade as the FED pulled this lever to fight inflation. Simultaneously, equities fell substantially. Instead of staying on the sidelines, investors flocked to credit to capture strong, steady returns.
For just doing their jobs the same way they always have, credit investors were now being compensated handsomely—especially relative to the shitty yields of the 2010s. However, the flock to credit led to greater competition in credit. The credit guys raised more money, many equities guys raised credit funds, and investors could not get enough of low default, consistent income, high-yielding credit. These led to incredibly tight spreads.
Made by yours truly
Not everyone can underwrite loans. Some managers were just getting money out the door to continue growing management fees. Some managers couldn’t read through the lines of a healthy company vs. a competitive process and ended up committing to loans without being aptly compensated (ie buying into the spread).
So, for the last two years investors have been eating spread and rationalizing that the ‘all-in’ yield of 8-10% was good enough. I’ve always been in the camp that this isn’t really intrinsic pricing. Spreads are based off of a). market demand and b). risk of the asset. It seemed like the ‘market demand’ side of the equation completely tilted the balance beam since 2023.
-Today-
Tbh I didn’t think this would happen so quickly but it looks like we are finally at a point where investors are saying “damn, I’m not being compensated for the risk I’m underwriting.”
Obviously, you’ll see this happen in the C’s first before trickling upstream to the B’s and A’s. The lenders to the fundamentally riskiest businesses are now demanding wider spreads to be compensated for the risk they’re taking—especially as base rates continue to fall lower.
-Additional Factors-
Beyond this market construct, there are two other factors contributing to CCCs trading higher that are worth mentioning:
The K-shaped economy
Technical constraints of CLOs having CCC exposure caps
The K-shaped economy was a term coined by Andrew Milgram (founder of Marblegate) back in August 2025. This theory essentially says that the poor performing sectors of the economy are invisible. Bigger companies are doing better and better, higher income consumers are making more and more money and the flip side is struggling.
Sure, there is partial truth to this but it’s so much more nuanced than big doing better than little. There is wide dispersion amongst the performance of smaller companies and my view is that this has been led by management.
Did the Company lever up during ZIRP? Was there a RIF during 2022? Has the Company done anything positively different since rates increased? Answering those questions helps distinguish which LMM companies deserve a 1,200bps spread and which deserve a 700bps spread.
Now onto the technical component. CLOs (largest credit investors) have a CCC exposure cap. Their investors consist of entities like insurance companies and pension funds. Those guys can’t hold potentially shitty paper.
Disclosure: Nothing written here is financial advice or should be used for investment decisions.
Learning Point of the Week:
Market Sizing
Market sizing questions are very common during consulting interviews.
They are great for understanding how you think. They’re difficult because you’re expected to come up with a specific number (but one that no normal person possibly knows the “correct” answer to).
These are commonly referred to as Fermi Estimations.
An example might be: “How many piano tuners are in New York City?”
—Step 1: Ask clarifying questions. ✅
You might ask if they want you to consider all 5 boroughs or just Manhattan. Are they inquiring about grand pianos or all types of pianos? Are they including concert venues or piano stores (for the example below we will assume not).
—Step 2: Take a moment to plan out how you will address the question/your calculation ✅
Knowing how you will approach the problem will make explaining your logic to the interviewer much easier.
—Step 3: Execute ✅
Make sure to use round numbers/percentages as this makes things much easier.
They are not looking for the “correct” answer but rather that you can approach a difficult question with organization and logic.
Regarding piano tuners in Manhattan:
-Start by assuming that 2 million people live in Manhattan
-Assume that there are 2 people/household. That leaves you with 1MM households.
-Next guestimate that 1 in 20 households owns a piano. That means ~50,000 pianos need to be tuned
-Next, assume that they tune their piano once/year
-Now it’s time for assumptions about the tuners:
-It takes 2 hours to tune 1 piano
-The tuners work 8 hours/day, 5 days/week, 50 weeks/year = (8*5*50)/2 hours = 1,000 pianos per year
-From the simple math above we can see that it takes 50 tuners to fulfill the piano needs in Manhattan.
Is this the “correct” answer? Probably not. But it is a sound approach that is logical and will certainly impress your interviewer. 🔥
Going Forward:
Heavy Push on Our Buyside Associate Prep
On the Buyside, models + jobs = offer. We bring everything you need under one roof: Buyside Recruiting & Interview Prep Platform | The Pulse. High quality is what we deliver.
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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