"The Pulse" -- #97 / Stock Market Sell-off

Recruiting Timeline:

Banking:

Where We’re At:

• SA 2026: Fifth Third Bank and Rabobank opened their applications this week. 96 firms are recruiting for SA 2026. The SA 2026 process is 90% complete. Only smaller boutiques and middle market banks will be opening up applications for the remainder of the season.  

• 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:

• Fifth Third Bank: Middle market bank (SA 2026)

• Rabobank: Dutch middle market bank (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:

• Oliver Wyman’s 2026 full-time application was released! There are currently 6 applications open. Remember to apply early!

SA 2026 released apps:

• None

FT 2026 released apps:

• Oliver Wyman - 2026 Full-Time Consultant

Buyside:

Where We’re At:

• SA 2026: PSG Equity, Kline Hill Partners, Graham Partners, and Global Endowment Management opened apps this week. Currently 88 buyside firms are recruiting for SA 2026 seats 

New SA 2026 released apps:

• PSG Equity: Growth equity (SA 2026)

• Kline Hill Partners: PE secondaries (SA 2026)

• Graham Partners: Middle market PE fund, $4bn AUM (SA 2026)

• Global Endowment Management: $12bn AUM investment manager (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 97th 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:

The Stock Market Sell-off

If you follow the stock market you know that last week was pretty brutal. For context over the last two days, the S&P 500 is down 10.5%. This is the fourth worst two-day period since the S&P was created in 1957.

What’s crazy is the back-to-back 5% drops come even after better-than-expected job numbers were released (the U.S. added 288,000 jobs in March). The Futures markets started trading Sunday evening and the S&P 500 was down approximately 3% (The NASDAQ and DOW were down 3.9% and 2.5% respectively).

Jim Cramer has predicted that tomorrow will be a “Black Monday” like market crash so I guess we’re good? All jokes aside, markets are pricing in massive corporate earnings drops related to the tariffs Trump announced on Wednesday. There is so much uncertainty at the moment.

Multiple countries have said they are willing to negotiate with Trump. Vietnam has even announced that they are willing to remove all tariffs on the United States. But then you have countries like China which announced 34% reciprocal tariffs on U.S. goods.

It’s really tough to see how this plays out but certainly illustrates why diversification is so important.

If you have most of your money in large-cap U.S. stocks then you are really hurting. However, if you were invested across geography, size, sector, and asset class then your portfolio might be down a modest few percentage points compared to double digits. 

It’s easy to forget how essential a diversified portfolio is when you are a young college student or post-grad and the U.S. tech sector has been scorching hot over the last two years. Check out "The Pulse" -- #94 / Diversification for our more in-depth write-up on diversification.

Any way you slice it the next few weeks and months will likely be quite painful in terms of market returns, M&A, IPOs, and business in general.

In fact, Klarna and Stubhub have delayed their IPOs due to all the market turbulence. After all who would want to take their company public and be marked to market when growth stocks are performing so terribly?

It will be very interesting to see how things play out but in the meantime, you just have to hope there is some method to the madness and that favorable trade deals are struck.

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

Consulting Recruitment Process

With consulting recruiting picking up steam over the past few weeks we wanted to give a little attention to the recruiting process.

Because most of you want to land roles at McKinsey, Bain, and BCG we’ll focus on the processes at these firms specifically (make sure you’re on top of your deadlines and submit your applications ASAP!)

Bain: Uses a point system to grade its candidates. The categories include academics, work experience, extracurriculars…etc.

1. Resume and cover letter drop

2. Bain Online Test - This tests your analytical skills, personality, and aptitude. There are GMAT-like components

3. HR screen - This is to assess you before you’re invited to a more formal interview. Just be yourself and make sure you have cohesive answers to “Why consulting?”, “Why Bain”, etc.

4. First round (PEI and case study) - This is typically with 3 interviewers, 30-40 minutes each

5. Final round (more PEI and cases) - Typically 3-4 interviewers

McKinsey

1. Resume and cover letter drop

2. McKinsey Problem Solving Test - This is very similar to Bain’s online assessment test

3. HR screen

4. First Round - One 50-minute one-on-one case study. Some behavioral mixed in

5 Final Round - Three 50-minute one-on-one case studies

BCG

1. Resume and cover letter drop

2. BCG online assessment/Pymetrics - Again, this is very similar to that of Bain and McKinsey. The Pymetrics assessment consists of 10-12 “games” to test your logic and reasoning skills. Pymetrics a more a measure of fit than intelligence.

3. One-way interview - This is essentially the same as an HR screen except there is no one on the other side of the screen.

4. First Round - Two case study interviews, about 30-45 minutes each. Some behavioral mixed in.

5. Final Round - Three case study interviews, about 30-45 minutes each

Consulting recruiting is highly competitive so case prep is the most important aspect of preparing for an interview. You can have a stellar GPA and great experiences but it is nearly impossible to come away with an offer if you screw up a case study. This is why we always recommend having a study buddy!

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 @thepulseprep@gmail.com, 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! (thepulseprep@gmail.com)

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” #97

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