Best Group to be in Starting IB Career with Recession (Incoming SA 23)

I'll be interning at a BB in the public finance group in summer 2023 which I'm excited for, but all this talk about recession and layoffs are a little scary to hear all the time. Even though I do find the public sector part of public finance interesting (particularly infrastructure/transportation), I thought it might be smart to try and switch for FT to a different group. I was thinking DCM as I like how (at least from my perception) it is one of the more macro focused IB groups. Was also thinking about trying to switch into project finance as it is still infrastructure, but more modeling and more $ lol. But, I hear public finance is one of the more stable/recession proof groups in IB. Maybe I'm a little paranoid about a recession, but which group is the best to enter their career in this day and age as I'm interested in all three. Obviously my number one priority is to get the return offer in public finance. 

13 Comments
 

I've heard that FIG is a relatively stable group because it's usually the biggest revenue generator and financial institutions always need capital markets servicing

But would also be curious if others have opinions on this

 

Real estate is also a solid one if you can land one of the better shops that do REIB

 

Thanks everyone, I appreciate the responses. But what about the three groups I was talking about (public finance, DCM, and project finance) as these are the areas I’m most interested in.  

 

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