The Pulse is Hiring Interns!
We are hiring interns across growth, strategy, marketing, and tech roles. These are all paid positions with an August 2026 start date!
We are taking juniors and seniors (Class of 2027 and Class of 2028). Previous interns have gone on to work at Goldman, Guggenheim, Point72, and more. Intern App
We will also be onboarding coaches for the Summer 2028 Recruiting Season. Required to have completed a junior summer internship: Coaching App
Recruiting Timeline:
Banking:
Where We’re At:
SA 2027: No updates this week. 92 banks are actively recruiting for SA 2027. This process is 95% complete.
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:
None
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:
Nothing new this week. Last week was a big one with Bain and McKinsey releasing their internship applications and announcing the date for the full-time applications. We expect BCG to release their apps by early April, but will continue to monitor for an earlier release.
SA 2027 released apps:
None
FT 2027 released apps:
None
Buyside:
Where We’re At:
SA 2027: No new apps this week. There are currently 79 buyside firms actively recruiting for SA 2027.
FT 2027: No new apps this week. There are currently 4 buyside firms actively recruiting for FT 2027.
Buyside Associate Recruiting: Ares, Barings, Audax, and more are actively recruiting for summer 2027 associates. 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:
None
New FT 2027 released apps:
None
New Buyside Associate released apps:
Barings: RE Private Credit (immediate start)
Audax: Private Credit (immediate start)
Ares: Real Estate PE (immediate start)
Premium Database:
The database is updated weekly and contains 300+ 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 146th 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 make a one-time investment of $65 Credit Card / Debit Card: (ThePulsePrep—Stripe.com) that grants you annual access to the updated database (please reach out for additional payment options). If you don’t find our services helpful, we simply ask for feedback on an area we can improve upon and will refund your $65.
This is a small investment for a huge payout when you secure your dream offer!
Premium Database——>Database for investment banking, consulting and buyside roles | The Pulse
Market Update:
Non-Compete M&A & Fragmentation
I’ve been thinking a lot about how AI development is going to affect standard business practice. So, this piece will be a bit of an extension of what I wrote about here: "The Pulse" -- #144 / Citrini'd.
A gray area to me is the M&A landscape in a world where development costs have been pushed significantly lower. Going from 0→1 has never been easier and I largely agree with the notion that non-critical SAAS apps will be replaced by internal devs re-creating app functionality with tools like Claude. As a student, you might use something like Blackboard or Canvas or Handshake on a daily basis. However, I bet you spend the majority of your time cycling through 3-5 core features of these platforms (submitting assignments, applying to jobs, checking schedules, etc). The rest of the features are completely useless to you, but your school is still paying for the full package.
Which Do You Hate More?
It is now easier than ever to vibecode key SAAS functionality and sell it. The new wave of M&A will shift heavily towards buying out competition vs. buying into potential synergies. Established platforms will look to buy out newcomers with traction because having a well developed codebase is no longer an edge. SAAS companies will lean even heavier into sales and marketing vs. development to build their advantage.
You no longer want to buy someone else’s product or service, you just want that guy to stop stealing your customers. To do this, you’ll pay to have the seller sign a strict non-compete to force them out of the industry. In the small Digital business world, the concept of a monopoly is pretty ridiculous so the risk there is muted.
You’re already seeing this play out in the startup space. Small GPT wrappers with strong traction are quietly getting rolled up into larger companies. For example, Meta acquired Moltbook—the viral AI social media platform. Their tech isn’t getting re-deployed under a new name, it’s getting destroyed.
“Will SAAS companies even exist? I thought they were getting crushed recently?”
Yes, the Terminal Values applied to SAAS businesses in the age of low-cost development are no longer as visible as they once were. Yet, I think people were quick to judge the benefits of paying a relatively low monthly fee for a standardized, carefully manicured SAAS app.
Companies will try to save costs on non-critical SAAS platforms by instructing internal devs to recreate their favorite features of certain apps using tools like Claude. However, this totally fragments the market. Instead of every company subscribing to X SAAS platform to do Y task, they’ll all be building their own tools in different ways which will add more friction to operations, hiring, and data analysis.
Imagine If Everyone Vibecoded Their Own Version of Excel—Disaster!
Internal AI slop development will cause extreme fragmentation which will ironically increase demand for platforms that can translate everyone’s nuanced processes and data.
So, funny enough that creates room for a new hybrid SAAS company which can:
a). provide you only with the functionality you need
and
b). synthesize customized systems, data, and training across all of their customers
I’ll go back to the Excel example. If everyone vibecoded their own form of Excel with their own rules (shortcuts, formatting, etc), it would be 10x harder to analyze data and share insights across companies. It’s already bad enough whenever you run into the occasional scrub relying off of Google Sheets.
Disclosure: Nothing written here is financial advice or should be used for investment decisions.
Learning Point of the Week:
Take Action, Send Out the Application!
Apply early and often—seriously our best piece of advice with regards to entry-level banking/consulting/buyside recruiting.
Here is why applying as early as possible and to as many places as possible gives you a HUGE advantage in the recruiting process:
Apps are rolling. There are X amount of spots open, so having your resume at the top of the pile makes it easier for the reviewer to say “hey, there are X number of spots open, they might make a good fit—let’s schedule an interview.” vs, “we have already given out 85% of offers, this candidate isn’t strong enough to meet our requirements for the remaining 15% of the pool.”
Similar to the first point, but your competitors (other students applying) are all coming in with the same resume (everyone has an equal amount of minimal tangible experience). By nature, the first resume reviewed is significantly less boring to read than resume #29,707.
Entry level banking/consulting/buyside jobs are super similar across all firms (pay included). Therefore, there is 0 downside to applying everywhere you can. If you get an interview somewhere you never want to work at, fuck it, it will make good practice.
More time to prep for technicals and behaviorals. If you send the app in, all you can do is wait for the interview—which leaves plenty of time to zero in on your interviewing skills.
Some people think you need to network with at least 3-5 people before applying, I think this a bunch of bullshit. Intern recruiting is a pretty low priority for most firms given the fact they can just re-hire for full time analysts if the interns all suck. At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter how many people you’ve networked with if you never submit the application.
Think practically. Firms want to hire intern classes as quickly as possible to minimize the amount of time + money needed to fill spots. Therefore, applying within the first 1-2 weeks of an app opening provides you with an extreme advantage during the review process.
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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“The Pulse” #146
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