Public Finance vs General IB

Hi All,

I received a summer analyst offer from Wells Fargo in their Public Finance Group, which is in their IBD. However, I'm worried that later on down the road, exit opportunities into HF/PE will be limited, in addition to the fact that Public Finance is specialized/niche as compared to some of the other IBD groups.

Thus, if I were to receive an offer from a lesser known, but still large bank (specifically KeyBank or SunTrust Robinson Humphrey) in their general IBD SA program, would that be a more attractive option than WF, even if the name is less well known?

Thank you all, really appreciate any insight or feedback!

 
Best Response

Pub fin gets a bad rap on here. If you aren't dead set on doing the traditional IB>PE>BS>Grab the World by the Balls route that everyone believes to be the be all-end all, then pub fin with a top BB would still generate a ton of unique opportunities for you.

End of the day, IB is essentially a professional development program. Yes, the technical work you'll do in pub fin is less attractive to a certain segment of the finance world than M&A, but the professional development component is not. You'll still be working with highly intelligent people and inherently the intangible, professional side of you will see considerable growth. Having worked at a no-name, I can tell you first hand that while you'll be getting more relevant experience, there's a strong chance you will lose that professional development component.

 

PF usually falls under IB, but the work is substantially different than corp fin analysts. your clients are anybody who can issue tax-exempt debt (municipalities, states, utilities, airports, in some cases corporations, etc)

 

at my firm there is no salary difference at the analyst level. exit opps are generally the same for PF analysts-law school/business school. might be a little tougher to branch out into hedge funds/PE, but I don't think it would be impossible.

 

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