Public Finance Blog

Make a move this year, but is it possible and smart?  The answer is: it just depends.  Planning for a move at any time of the year is a smart move, but closing on the new position before the year’s end is the question.  Numerous factors need to be evaluated, but let’s look at the possibility.

Reward Or Woe When You Make A Move This Year

For an individual or a team to make a move this year, it needs to be financially rewarding as the potential of leaving a bonus behind looms, which may have been earned in 2025 but not be paid till 2026.  If there is no concern about being made whole and the opportunity exists to make a move with a new firm and a new compensation model, then you should definitely consider making the move (if it is warranted for other reasons).  However, if leaving money is a hardship, then other factors need to be thoroughly investigated such as either receiving a signing bonus or annual guarantees replacing the lost compensation.  But…not everyone is going to be offered this luxury so far into the year.

What Hiring Managers Say…

I queried a few hiring managers on both the public finance and bond counsel side and posed that same question: Would you hire and start anybody that wants to make a move this year?  The answer was clearly yes!  They would if the individual or team met two criteria. One, they were clearly additive to the firm’s current marketplace.  Two, they had revenue which was going to come over with them, signed agreements, and no pipe dreams (as one manager said to me).  Too many times, people claim they have transactions they offer up as ready to either bill on in the case of lawyers and fund shortly in the case of public finance bankers.  But that does not always happen.

Desired Candidates?

Who is the perfect candidate to make a move this year and be made whole?  The answer is a specialist bond counsel or banker.  One that clearly has a desired niche, owns the clients, and can help the firm or bank charter new territory.  For example, one public finance manager said to me that the areas they would hire immediately are a transportation banker, housing banker, or someone who wanted to start a credit lease tenant (CTL) department.  On the legal side, I was shared a team that was in a different locale than they cover as well as a specialized niche like housing, healthcare, or higher education.

The answer?  If you fit one of these special situations, you can and will be hired to make a move this year.  But for everyone else, I offer this information: keep interviewing and get employment contracts executed with new firms, so that as soon as you are paid your well-earned bonus, you can make that planned move in 2026.  Let us help you get ready for that exciting event in your career trajectory.

Conclusion

You don’t need a resume to chat with us! If you would like to discuss your options, please reach out for a confidential conversation at 760-477-1284 or email at harlan@hfriedmansearch.com. He can also be reached on LinkedIn. Harlan publishes a blog every Thursday here. Subscribe to our monthly newsletter here, which is a compilation of our weekly blogs, so you never miss one. We have also been mentioned in Forbes this year, click HERE to read more.  

About Harlan Friedman, JD & Founding Member, H. Friedman Search LLC. Harlan is a thirty-year veteran Public Finance Banker turned recruiter who specializes in the placement of all levels Public Finance Bankers, Healthcare Bankers, Municipal Advisors, Compliance Officers, Issuers, and Bond Counsels.