"The Pulse" --#75 / Rate Cuts & Rising Treasury Yields

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Last year, 95% of students coached received offers.

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Recruiting Timeline:

Banking:

Where We’re At:

• SA 2026: Lincoln International and M. Klein opened their apps this week. 5 firms are actively recruiting for summer 2026 positions. Interviews will kick off over the next 2 months, it’s time to start prepping behaviorals and technicals.

• FT 2025: No openings this week. This process is 90% complete. There are currently 60 firms actively recruiting for FT 2025. Please reach out if you are looking for coaching!

New SA 2026 Applications:

• Lincoln International: Boutique with an M&A focus (SA 2026)

New FT 2025 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:

• 48 SA 2025 applications have been released along with 55 FT 2025 apps. This process is in the late stages and will be completed by mid-December.

SA 2025 released apps:

• Actualize - Junior Consultant Intern (SA 2025)

SA 2026 released apps:

• None

FT 2025 released apps:

• None

Buyside:

Where We’re At:

• SA 2026: Graham Partners opened a weird 2-year internship for the class of 2027. It locks you in for summer 2025 and summer 2026 (ig they’ve had bad turnover or re-recruiting). Currently, 5 buyside firms recruiting for SA 2026 seats. 

• A Mega-Fund announced its app opening in January, check out the Premium Database for the details ;)

New SA 2026 released apps:

• Graham Partners: MM, manufacturing-tech focus (SA 2026)

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 75th 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:

Rate Cuts, but Rising Treasury Yields?

As we all know, rates were cut 50bps on September 23rd to bring the federal funds rate down to 4.75% - 5.00%. However, treasury yields have NOT participated in that same 50bps downwards readjustment. In fact, they’ve done the opposite.

The 10yr yield actually ROSE ~50bps since 9/23—now isn’t that interesting. Greater yields generally mean some economic uncertainty as investors essentially bet that the U.S. will be a riskier economy than it was before.

So, what the fuck is going on?

A few things:

1. The election will happen on 11/5—that’s lowkey tomorrow

Regardless of who wins, investors become a little shaky on the anticipation of economic action taken by presidents such as tariffs, taxes, and stimulus. We did a deeper dive on election impacts here: "The Pulse" -- #33 and "The Pulse" --#57 / Financial Markets During Election Years.

No one really knows who is going to win. I’m sure you’ve seen prediction markets like Kalshi and Polymarket demonstrating a slight favor for Trump—but who really knows at the end of the day. I’m not in the business of gambling on that type of bet.

I prolly would be if Kalshi or Polymarket would sponsor us lmao.

2. Expectations for additional rate cuts are falling

To explain this, I’ll drop a few recent economic indicators:

• Latest YoY PCE at 2.1% (continued downtrend)

• Latest unemployment sticky at 4.1%

The FED is responsible for keeping inflation reasonable (2-3% range) while keeping unemployment low. So far, they’ve been successful. Given the strength of the economy, investors are questioning the quantum (hate that word) of additional rate cuts.

On 9/23, many were pricing in ~200bps of additional cuts in 2025. Maybe that’s changing…"The Pulse" --#69 / 50 States, 50bps of Rate Cuts

3. Mounting fiscal deficit: $35.8tn today

Interest payments now comprise ~2.4% of total GDP.

With any organization, you never want to see lower interest coverage. That is effectively what this graph is showing us.

Just like anything else, as obligations grow the U.S. begins to seem like a riskier country to invest in. So, investors demand higher yields on Treasuries—this is circular as higher yields = greater interest = poorer financial performance.

Now, I don’t really think classical economic / financial theory applies to the largest economy with the most dominant military and the issuer of the world’s reserve currency. But for now, people are feeling uncertain which causes yields to rise.

Before we conclude, I want to lightly discuss the effects of higher yields on corporate valuations. This will be helpful for those prepping for interviews.

Higher yields = greater WACC = lower valuations. I’ve wrriten about WACC here: "The Pulse" --#25. The cost of equity rises with greater yields and the cost of debt rises too as it’s largely benchmarked to treasury yields. A greater WACC means a greater discount rate is applied to a company’s future cash flows—resulting in a lower valuation.

I will leave you with this: given rising yields, will there be more rate cuts? I certainly think so.

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

The top mistakes we see on resumes:

Pete reviewed hundreds of resumes this week from you guys and he reported a few key items we are going to share.

1. Wack resume formatting

• This is really important because, at the end of the day, your resume is supposed to display your achievements, skills, and interests cohesively and succinctly. Choppy formatting can make a strong resume less enticing to a recruiter. Formatting, text, and font sizing should be consistent throughout. Also, there should be no pictures on your resume lol.

2. A resume with no numbers

• Banking and consulting require strong quantitative skills, so shouldn’t your resume have some numbers on it? Quantify your impact as much as you can. This is helpful to show recruiters and anyone who might be interviewing you that you’re not just an intern, but someone who can get shit done and have an impact.

3. Too many experiences/extracurriculars

• There were multiple resumes Pete reviewed that had 6+ extracurricular experiences for a sophomore in college. How can you possibly be involved with 6 or 7 clubs/orgs while managing a full courseload and trying to land an internship? Either you're a superhuman who doesn’t sleep or you’re not actively engaging with the clubs. Rather, pick 2-4 clubs/organizations that resonate with you and engage deeply with them. If you really are passionate about the orgs and their missions it will be easy to take on a leadership position come sophomore/junior year.

4. Soft skills on a resume

• “Motivated team player with strong communication skills,” tells me very little about you. Rather than including excerpts like this in a skills section show them throughout your resume. We can tell you are motivated through strong academic performance and club engagement. In your experiences, we can tell whether or not you worked on a team. Also, it is very apparent in an interview if you do have strong soft skills. The bottom line: no one wants to see soft skills on your resume so let your experiences do the talking.

5. Relevant Coursework

• This is not necessary. Recruiters and anyone you interview with will understand what skills various majors possess. Including the fact that you took Impact Investing is far less valuable than elaborating on one of your club experiences or previous internships.

Going Forward:

If you’re a senior thinking about buyside recruiting, we want to chat! Please shoot us an email @[email protected], would love to help you out.

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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!

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“The Pulse” #75