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Recruiting Timeline:
Banking:
Where We’re At:
SA 2027: Clifton Larson opened its app this week. 113 banks are actively recruiting for SA 2027. This process is largely over. We will begin tracking SA 2028 in August.
FT 2027: BMO, Evercore, Houlihan Lokey, and Nfluence opened their apps. 19 banks are actively recruiting for FT 2027.
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New SA 2027 Applications:
CliftonLarson: West Coast boutique (SA 2027)
New FT 2027 Applications:
Harris Williams: Strong, Richmond-based boutique (FT 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:
We’re starting to get into full gear here! Quite a few application releases this week. Make sure to apply early and often!
SA 2027 released apps:
FTI Consulting: 2027 Intern (SA 2027)
2nd Order Solutions: Business Analyst intern (SA 2027)
OC&C: Associate Consultant (SA 2027)
FT 2027 released apps:
FTI Consulting: Entry-Level Consultant (FT 2027)
2nd Order Solutions: Business Analyst (FT 2027)
Bridegspan Group: Associate Consultant (FT 2027)
OC&C: Associate Consultant Intern (FT 2027)
KCIC: Entry-Level Consultant (FT 2027)
Buyside:
Where We’re At:
SA 2027: OMERS, Harrison Street, and Squarepoint opened apps this week. There are currently 126 buyside firms actively recruiting for SA 2027.
FT 2027: Janus Henderson opened its app this week. There are currently 33 buyside firms actively recruiting for FT 2027.
Buyside Associate Recruiting: HIG, Siguler Gaff, and Spectrum Equity 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.
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New SA 2027 released apps:
OMERS: Real estate intern (SA 2027)
Harrison Street: Asset management (SA 2027)
Squarepoint: Quant (SA 2027)
New FT 2027 released apps:
Janus Henderson: Research (FT 2027)
New Buyside Associate released apps:
HIG: RE arm (summer 2027 start date)
Siguler Gaff: Tactical Credit (summer 2027 start date)
Spectrum Equity: Growth Equity (summer 2027 start date)
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Market Update:
Situationally Unaware
The public markets are a ruthless place and Leopold Aschenbrenner learned that the hard way. On Thursday, Leopold (manager of $45bn AUM Situational Awareness) was forced to liquidate his public holdings in a $16bn sale to Citadel.
Effectively, Situational Awareness was over-levered and facing a margin call after many of its AI-related holdings traded down over the last month.
This calls 3 lessons to be prudent:
Margin amplifies your gains and losses
Your risk is someone else’s opportunity
Do NOT get big enough to eat someone else’s share of fundraising capital
SOX Slide ~14% in 1 Month (Source: Google Finance)
The market took the past month to re-price a bit as the world begins to question the validity of AI spend. During that time, Situational Awareness did not have the risk management framework in place to manage that selloff. The names within the Situational Awareness portfolio were all high beta, AI infrastructure companies.
However, the 4x leverage is what put him deeply in the red. Situational Awareness had 4x leverage on its correlated book, which amplified the effective paper losses to nearly 67% in July. He was long low-liquidity, high beta names and short, large liquidity, lower beta positions. So, he was massively net long after adding the leverage. Therefore, a margin call came knocking as his bets became unfavorable.
So, lesson #1: Margin amplifies your gains and losses.
Moving onto lesson #2: Your risk is someone else’s opportunity.
Ken Griffin via Citadel bought the entire book at a major discount (~$16bn). He saw a young fund with an inexperienced team as an opportunity to capitalize on their risk. This made sense for nearly anyone large enough to play because the discount who have been marked so far below market value that the net gains would be simply too juicy to pass up. In this situation, margin providers need to get out, but you can’t just dump your $45bn book onto the public markets at once. Therefore, liquidity needed to come from a structured sale with a known counterparty. Citadel can do this trade because they have half a trillion dollars of AUM.
I’m not sure if Citadel actually plans on holding a concentrated book of high beta, AI infrastructure names. That’s not really their game. Yet, the distressed asset sale is exactly the game they play.
Kenny G Will Buy Your Assets at a Discount
I’d put Citadel right alongside JPM as a best-in-class institution. These are the places where the lights stay on when everyone else is underwater.
Lesson #3: Do NOT get big enough to eat someone else’s share of fundraising capital.
There is some discussion that this was a targeted hit. Essentially, some people believe that larger funds were intentionally shorting certain names or publishing certain insights to drive Situational Awareness into a margin call to “remove them from the game.”
Citadel Called for a July Rate Hike (Source: Prediction Authority)
Before the FED decision on the 29th, Citadel called for a weird rate hike. Everyone knew there wouldn’t be a hike. Some are now claiming that Citadel intentionally published this to rock the boat further to create the opportunity to buy the Situational Awareness book.
The public markets are the best competition in the world. Beyond chasing alpha, everyone is competing for the same pot of fundraising capital to earn fees (remember 2 and 20!). A young upstart growing from $225mm to $45bn+ of AUM is someone who is taking your share of fees. Situational Awareness simply got too big to ignore.
Disclosure: Nothing written here is financial advice or should be used for investment decisions.
Learning Point of the Week:
The Yellow Brick Road (Banking → Private Equity → MBA / Hedge Fund / PE)
It’s a common myth that the most successful professionals in finance need to follow the path of 2 years banking, 2 years private equity, and then a trip down MBA lane / pivot to a hedge fund / take greater responsibility in PE.
Rather than a yellow brick road, I think this is a quick path towards regret for most people. Sure, following this road allows you to earn >$500K / year and attend a lot of client dinners but it comes at the cost of sacrificing your 20s.
My World If I Could Tell People I Work 100 Hours at Apollo
Banking is a grind. PE is known as banking 2.0 especially at the mega funds. An MBA is chill, but why do banking / PE to then go get an MBA? A hedge fund provides 0 certainty of employment and is extremely stressful during market hours. Nothing is perfect.
I know so many people heading down this route with no true end goal. It’s always a ladder of prestige and getting paid more which is their top priority. Unless they really live and breathe this shit, they’re going to find themselves in a position of regret when they realized they blew through their 20s doing things they don’t truly love.
There isn’t a yellow brick road.
No single path is the best for every single person. For some people, banking → private equity → the big 3 exit opps makes sense. They’re passionate about gaining that experience to be industry veterans. For many others, there is an entire world of possibilities out there which often lie under a stone left unturned. They just need some time to discover what they really love to do in life.
Never take a path you think you might regret.
Going Forward:
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“The Pulse” #166
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