On the agenda today:

• Inside Mark Zuckerberg’s wild transformation from Silicon Valley wimp to Wall Street cage fighter.
• Meet the 27-year-old Google employee throwing tech’s hottest parties.
• Our database of 350+ headhunters will help you find your Wall Street dream job.
• Inside the private jails for the rich and famous.

— Matt Turner

If this was forwarded to you, sign up here.

Junior banker freakout

But for a select group of young Wall Streeters, there was no such respite. These wannabe masters of the universe were up all night participating in high-pressure job interviews with private-equity firms offering $300,000 compensation packages.

The annual private-equity recruitment drive sees the most junior bankers, or analysts in Wall Street parlance, interview for their next job while still in the very earliest stages of training for their current job.

This year, the process started earlier than ever, with investment banking analysts just weeks into their careers in finance stepping out of training sessions at firms like Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan to prep for interviews with the likes of Apollo, KKR, and TPG.

It’s a striking reminder of the war for talent in finance, even in a quieter environment for dealmaking. Blackstone recently became the first private-equity firm with $1 trillion in assets under management, while PE firms still have more than $3 trillion in capital to put to work, according to Bain & Company.

Sparking a conversation: Insider’s Aki Ito recently won the Nell Minow Award for Cultural Criticism at the National Press Club Awards. In a reported essay back in March 2022, Aki wrote that “many employees have quietly decided to take it easy at work rather than quit.” Her story inspired a TikTok that went viral, helping spark the national conversation on quiet quitting.

Zuckerberg 3.0

What happened to the gentle, cocky tech wunderkind who launched Facebook from his dorm room? According to people who have been close to Zuckerberg over the years, the CEO’s transformation is a survival response to the most turbulent period in his company’s 20-year history.

Read the full story.

Also read:

• Mark Zuckerberg’s Metaverse losses pass $40 billion. Here’s why that’s suddenly OK.

Over the past three years, Yeung has thrown nearly 200 events, attended by more than 15,000 people. His guests include filmmakers, supermodels, political consultants, blockchain entrepreneurs, and founders of all kinds. Yet, because of visa restrictions, he’s never seen a dime from his parties.

Meet tech’s enigmatic party host.

Insider has compiled a searchable list of more than 350 Wall Street recruiters, including headhunters who place traders, dealmakers, portfolio managers, and bankers.

Take the next step in your job search.

Also read:

• Investment giant Brookfield is shuttering its $1 billion multistrategy hedge fund

But until the former technology CEO Michael Lynch is tried over allegations that he had a role in a multibillion-dollar fraud scheme, his posh Pacific Heights house is his cage.

He’s the latest to benefit from an interpretation of federal law that lets rich defendants be their own jailers — spending millions to turn their luxury homes into jails with 24/7 guards.

Inside home prisons for the 0.1%.

Also read:

• Buying face time: A secret invite list shows how big donors gain access to Supreme Court justices

“The easiest way to justify a higher salary is through value creation, not simply by staying with a company for a long period of time.”

More of this week’s top reads:

• Leaked guidelines reveal more details about Amazon’s controversial “voluntary resignation” program for remote workers.
• The economy’s dream scenario just got even closer.
• Cool-girl brand Aritzia made employees rate one another’s appearances, discriminated against Black salespeople, and fostered a culture of fear, some ex-staffers say.
• Goldman Sachs VP Galey Alix wants to be an HGTV star.
• The US and China are gearing up for war — and America isn’t ready.
• How the rich put millions into trusts to take care of their pets after they die.
• A millionaire who retired at 36 shares his favorite index funds for returns.
• Why we all love to hate other generations.
• Microsoft’s venture-capital arm, M12, has been offloading its portfolio on secondary exchanges.