BB Public Finance, Lifestyle and Exits?

I've searched forums but haven't found much updated consensus. I would appreciate any and all advice!

I just received an offer at a BB as a FT Public Finance Analyst. The groups seems solid, but I haven't been exposed to PF much before interviewing.

Any information / links to past WSO forums would be great!

Thank you!

8 Comments
 

All you do is raise debt for boring municipal infrastructure projects. Since these are governments lacking a standard corporate structure and aren't owned by shareholders, you can't do anything involving equity financing. Best case is that you get to restructure a bankrupt town or something like that. Nobody I've talked to in this sector has even been able to make themselves look remotely happy with their work.

 
Best Response

First of all congrats, you made it. I'm not a muni banker, but I work with them everyday because I'm on the DCM side of the muni space so I know a solid amount about the work. You will work just as much as any other banker, especially at a BB. Expect 70-80 hour work weeks on average. Your base salary will be in line with any other banker, but you're bonus will most likely be 20-30% less than a traditional banker (your fees are generated off of negotiated deals and private placements which are cheap AF). Most of your days will be comprised of writing up RFP's, composing deal books, and structuring debt in DBC. You don't actually model for most deals, but you have know what a deal should like to actually do it right in DBC and infrastructre/most refunding deals are done separately so you have to create your own models for those. Muni banking is unique, because unlike corporate finance it's heavily geared towards fixed income. As far as exit opps go, PE infrastructre is the best or just staying in PF until you make MD (Most of the MD's in my office are pulling in 300K I believe, with hours that are much lighter than corp fin). There's also the option of political office as well, because you work with government officials so much. If you have any other questions just shoot me a PM man, I'd be glad to answer them.

 

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