What is up with all the P72 academy kids who got cut?

Seems like a ridiculous amount of FT academy associates are getting cut nowadays. From the past 2 classes, looks like a large majority of them are either out of finance entirely, doing sell side equity research, random corp dev jobs or found something at random sub 100 million SM. Is the academy that brutal? Is there just no space for the class size? Or has the size of the academy been so large intentionally in the past few years to find “the best of the best”.

26 Comments
 

Politics help with pod placement? Don’t the PMs interview the associates themselves vs relying on a good word from the academy coaches? Sorry just trying to understand all of this right now.

 

yes absolutely yes. there was one offer at a pod that was vetoed by the coach. would be one of the extreme examples but a pattern im seeing is if you dont play the politics game well with the coaches, you get stuck with a non nyc office, a utilities team, launchpoint (new pm) pod, etc. at the end of the day, they determine which PMs you talk to or can prevent that entirely.

 

A little spooked by all the comments about the Academy. I'm having a final round interview with JH in a few days and having second thoughts now lol

 

Eh tbf, just do your best and don't think about it until you have the offer in hand. And once you do, feel free to give it a shot yourself or you can always start recruiting again after making it in.

Now, if you have multiple offers to choose from, then it's a different ball game.

 

Some people recruit for other funds whilst doing academy.

I did this albeit during the internship itself and dipped to another large platform for FT. Shit looks brutal and increasingly bureaucratic 

 

This. 

Historically classes were a lot smaller and the return offer rate for summers was ~50%. They changed that the last few years and it went from ~10-12 FT academy analysts that did the summer internship to ~25-40 FT analysts.

Not cutting people during the summer also let lower quality analysts who would've just not gotten a return make it to FT. These lower quality analysts are then get let go once they are in the FT academy.

I think they started doing this for getting pushback on their low offer rate for the SA, but it back fired on them in that they now had to fire people FT.

 
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It is a very complex process, however I will try to make it as simple as possible. It involves a highly sophisticated evaluation formula (cross factor exposure of course) of text how closely your opinion on anything is to JH's. For example, lets say your opinion on something is the same as JH but your model isnt that detailed you will be scored very highly because remember guys Models Dont Get you PNL! But wait, if your model is a bottom up live cost build pulling from 3p demand and input prices and you find a clear gap in cons. but it differs to what JH thinks? Sorry bud but remember a 1000 line model doesnt get you PNL! I hope this helps.

 

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