"The Pulse" -- #95 / U.S. Exceptionalism? A Quick Macro Update

Recruiting Timeline:

Banking:

Where We’re At:

• SA 2026: PEI Global and Edgemont Partners opened applications this week. 94 firms are actively recruiting for summer 2026 positions

• If you need some interview support or just need a place to vent, check out our Coaching Program: Coaching for banking, consulting, and buyside recruiting | The Pulse. 95%+ of those coached for the summer 2025 recruiting season received offers!

New SA 2026 Applications:

• PEI Global: Infrastructure boutique (SA 2026)

• Edgemont Partners: Healthcare boutique (SA 2026)

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 have stopped tracking 2025 recruiting and SA/FT 2026 recruiting is just beginning. There are currently 4 applications open. More 2026 apps soon to come!

SA 2026 released apps:

• None

FT 2026 released apps:

• None

Buyside:

Where We’re At:

• SA 2026: Susquehanna, Ardian, T. Rowe Price and two others opened their SA 2026 applications. Currently 81 buyside firms are recruiting for SA 2026 seats 

New SA 2026 released apps:

• Susquehanna: Known as a quant firm, hiring for growth equity intern (SA 2026)

• Ardian: Private markets primaries and secondaries, $176bn AUM (SA 2026)

• T. Rowe Price: Equity research intern, $2tn AUM asset manager (SA 2026)

• Adams Street Partners: Private credit intern (SA 2026)

• Stepstone Group: Private equity intern, middle market (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 95th 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 $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 banking, consulting and buyside roles | The Pulse 

Market Update:

U.S. Exceptionalism: A Quick Macro Update

If you’ve been reading the news recently, you might see a phrase pop up often: “U.S. Exceptionalism”. The meaning is exactly what it sounds like - that the U.S. is the place to park your hard-earned cash.

In other words, we have superior financial markets, strong incentives for innovation, the world’s reserve currency, and businesses that have generated returns far outpacing those of other countries.

When you think of the most iconic companies — almost all of them are likely based (and listed) in the U.S. The disparity can be seen pretty clearly below.

However, recently the American exceptionalism trade has performed pretty terribly as tariffs and other large policy changes have been discussed and implemented. Geopolitical and internal policy uncertainty has caused a massive selloff of U.S. equities. 

The S&P 500 is down 4% in 2025 after a piping hot 2023 and 2024. If you pair that with a weakening U.S. dollar (signaling that, at the moment, our currency is less desirable) it can be a bit concerning.

The trade war leaves businesses stuck in a weird limbo where they can’t plan efficiently and have to cut revenue forecasts and also consider layoffs.

Trade wars, policy uncertainty, and previously high equity valuations in the U.S. have called American exceptionalism trade into question. Investors have been parking their money in other markets. European markets have been ripping in 2025 and are up over 10% as investors assess whether the U.S. might not be the best place to invest at the moment.

Ironically, coming into this year investors were expecting the U.S. to post another year of double-digit returns. There was lots of euphoria around the Trump economy which touted tax cuts, less business regulation, and more M&A.

So far that’s not how things have panned out, but as we’ve seen, markets can change course very quickly and it’s still possible that a recession is avoided.

The bottom line is that while the U.S. still has the most high-quality, growth-oriented companies the overall macro picture has spooked investors and they are looking for markets/companies with lower multiples. Given that Europe has relatively underperformed, their companies are more modestly priced.

If you’re a young person with a long investment horizon a market selloff is actually favorable. We gotta get in somewhere!

You Landed the Job, Now What?

1. Celebrate!

   Drink a beer, hang with friends, call your parents. Whatever you choose to do, you should celebrate. A prestigious, 6-figure job is nothing to dismiss. After all, you have been working at it way too long.

    

2. Ask dumb questions

   Learn everything about the industry you possibly can. Look up definitions, read Rosenbaum & Pearl, digest recent deal announcements, etc. Intellectual curiosity is critical for success as a junior in finance. There is so much more to the industry than memorizing how to walk through a DCF.

   After I got my SA offer, I took the time to really soak in all finance-related content I was learning from class, seeing from FinMeme accounts on Instagram, or reading in the news. This was one of the best decisions I made in my life because it really sparked my interest in finance. I always had to bullshit my “why finance?” answer during interviews because I really had no idea what the fuck I was talking about. Actually learning about the industry and trying to understand the material rather than memorizing it showed me that I really enjoyed the world of finance. Genuine interest in the field separated me from the pack as a summer analyst and is definitely a motivator for writing The Pulse today.

   It is crazy to me the amount of full-time analysts there are who i). hate finance or ii). don’t truly understand the purpose of their job. IMO, a huge benefit of an early recruiting cycle as seen in banking/consulting/buyside is that it gives you a window of stress-free, post-offer time to figure out whether you’ll like your job or not.

3. Take your foot off the gas (just a touch)

   You’ll never have as much free time as you do in college (unless you go to grad school lmao). Taking your foot off the gas and spending your time the way you want to is easier said than done.

   However, I’ll remember a spontaneous weekend trip with friends more than grinding for some shitty exam. It is still important to maintain strong grades post-offer, but you should definitely prioritize your free time as well (plus it’ll make you a more interesting person to speak with at networking events or on the desk).

Overall, slow down and appreciate the moment. Your entire life, you have been working for the next milestone. It is exhausting. Save your next miserable chase for on-cycle private equity recruiting! That shit sucks and is way worse than summer analyst recruiting (more on that in the future).

Going Forward:

Are you starting your banking / consulting FT job this summer?

We are carefully rolling out our Buyside Associate prep solutions. This will be the best tool to land a job in PE, PC, HF, or VC / GE after your analyst stint. Please shoot us an email @[email protected], if you’d like to be a part of our first cohort—services will be 100% free.

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)

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“The Pulse” #95

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