Public Finance Recruiting and Interviewing

Question

Hello to anyone currently interested in recruiting for public finance summer analyst or public finance analyst roles! I understand that recruiting and interviewing for public finance can be a bit of a black box since there aren’t really well formed interviewing guides in the public finance space. In the spirit of making this sector more accessible to people who don’t already have contacts in the space, please feel free to post questions below about recruiting and interviewing for public finance! For context, I’m an analyst at a bulge bracket public finance firm.

You can also just ask me other questions about public finance in general, but there’s also another really great thread out there with a more senior banker that I recommend: https://www.wallstreetoasis.com/forums/public-fin…

htown_chimp · Accepted Answer

Well I don’t think it’s necessarily for everyone, but I think one of the biggest things we look for in new hires is people who are passionate about the public good-oriented clients with whom we interact. Beyond the type of clients, a lot of people find the product, municipal bonds, quite fascinating—they are def way more complex than corporate bonds. I think a lot of the same reasons people choose DCM apply here as well, a desire to interact with clients and work on bond deals while at the same time being in a fairly markets-oriented environment. The hours are not as long as in IBD.

newbie with questions · Answer

i interviewed for public finance 2021 on the accelerated track and received an offer from a top BB so feel free to PM me with questions as well!

htown_chimp · Answer

I think from an analyst perspective, most of the work relates to updating slides and doing work related to client coverage and bond deals, so I don’t personally feel like being super math oriented is really that important for most analysts. However, I think certain people called quants are more focused on the bond structuring side of things(municipals are a lot more complex than most corporate bonds), and they def use math a lot.

Dolla Bill Stern · Answer

Very small discount. Bigger discount is only seen at the MD level really. a VP in corp IB will make around $450/550k whereas a VP in PubFin will pull between $350/450k. different sounds like a lot, but post tax, ~$60k is not that much when you adjust for working 60h a week, and having time to blow your money on fun shit vs. hunting down legal at 3am on a Sunday night bc your MD has an “8am call” where he wants to propose a pitch that has no choice of the client biting on.

YMMV

+120	Hot take: I’d rather be at Desjardins than UBS for investment banking in 2026	19	3h
+102	Woman who emptied Knicks trashcan on street then stole it was DEI exec, worked at JPMorgan Chase	25	1d
+88	Stop sleeping on UBS - it’s pretty good	29	23h
+60	2026 VAULT PRESTIGE RANKINGS	33	4h
+49	Hardest interview experiences?	31	2h
+39	AI + Financial Modelling	12	3d
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+26	Current State of UBS in North America	8	4d
+26	People who work/worked in FIG IB at a BB: does FIG really pigeonhole you as bad as people say?	5	1d

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Public Finance Recruiting and Interviewing

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Public Finance Recruiting and Interviewing

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