Private-equity firms have been holding off on Wall Street’s most notorious hiring ritual — but they may not wait much longer.
Over the summer, JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon reshuffled the deck on the PE recruiting practice known as “on-cycle,” when he warned his incoming class of junior bankers against accepting future-dated jobs from buyout firms. This crackdown triggered a temporary moratorium on on-cycle recruiting for the 2027 class. Many of the top PE firms slammed on the brakes— Apollo, General Atlantic, TPG, to name a few — and committed to not recruiting for its 2027 class of employees until at least 2026. Some banks went so far as to say they would fire young employees who accepted lucrative PE jobs for two years down the line.
With January 1 just days away, there are whispers that the notoriously stressful, rapid-fire on-cycle process will kick off early in 2026, now that PE firms have shown Dimon the necessary grace.
“On-cycle recruiting hasn’t kicked off in 2025, but as soon as the ball drops, all bets are off!” Anthony Keizner, cofounder of recruiting firm Odyssey Search Partners, told Business Insider over email in early December. “A lot of investment funds are excited that finally again this year, there’s a class of investment banking analysts to interview that have training and deal experience.”
Matt Ting, the founder of Peak Frameworks, which helps people prepare for Wall Street job interviews, said that most respected Dimon’s wishes and held off on recruiting this year.
“The submissions for our private equity résumé database are due at the beginning of January, which is a bit of an indication of when we think recruiting will kick off,” Ting said in an email.
A shift to a previous timeline
The competitive path to becoming a private equity analyst often begins with an equally competitive investment banking career.
The frantic marathon known as on-cycle recruiting meant junior bankers typically received a call to drop everything at a moment’s notice to take an interview for a job that wouldn’t start for another two years.
Once upon a time — almost a decade ago — a January start would have been normal, according to data from Amity Search Partners. But since the pandemic years, recruiting has shifted progressively earlier, recently starting right as analysts hit the desk in their first investment banking jobs.
In June 2024, PE firms broke their own record when they began recruiting for 2026 jobs. Some recruits hadn’t even begun training for their first full-time investment banking roles.
This year had the potential to start even earlier — in May, just weeks before Dimon effectively halted the on-cycle whirlwind, fresh college graduates said they were taking introductory coffee chats with PE firms, casting a shadow over what should have been a moment of relief.
The anxiety doesn’t seem to have gone away. Questions about on-cycle are starting to dot the PE message board of Wall Street Oasis, a gossipy if somewhat frenzied online community.
One person asked for advice on preparing for interviews. Another commenter recently revived a post about the recruiting process that was originally published in April: “its starting – buckle up.”
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