Shopping a Summer Offer and Renegging

no consequences, you are easily replaceable. do whats best for you.

i never had a firm call up my firm after i summered to confirm i received an offer.

what are the chances of the bank you summered at finding out about you interviewing at other places?

High, if you do not accept within a given amount of time.

Not so much that they will a) know exactly where you are interviewing or b) or know definitively that you are, but they are not stupid and will suspect.

usually the top guys that competed for banking jobs tend to know each other.

if you're from an ivy league school where each firm takes 10-20 kids every year, then they probably will not find out as easily.

people tend to keep in touch after college if they're all living in the city, working at firms that are located near each other and they could even be roommates. you never know. all it takes is one phone call from one analyst to another to find out whats going on.

even though i am in favor of reneging, at this early stage and in this market.. be careful and i would not recommend it.

In this market it’s all about looking out for number one. Renege if you truly feel compelled too.

That's a dangerous philosophy. Wall Street is a small place, and if you've accepted the offer, you should probably take it. Burning bridges is a bad habit to get into.

I say Reneg if you have no other alternative. If Wall Street has the freedom to screw you by taking away an offer for no reason, you should screw them over if you have no choice.

Do what is best for you. You aren't some Vice Chairman or CEO where the move will be publicized in the media. You are an analyst that can be replaced easily and people don't care about analysts in general.

By all means Renege.

I am in the process of getting my offer rescinded by a bank before 3 days of my start date AFTER I rejected another offer from another bank.

NEVER THINK TWICE about reneging. Do it.

Has anyone done this and lived to tell about it? What about "blacklists?"

Also...Instead of reneging, you might want to call HR, explain that you're interests have shifted and what would be the consequences of not taking the position. They may have over-hired and be willing to let you off the hook. If this goes according to plan, you won't burn bridges and might even be extended another opportunity in the future with the same Firm.

In the long term, I think it's risky burning bridges and not worth a short term gain of having an alternative position for 18 months...you never know who you'll be working for/alongside in the future.

Also- food for thought, I believe that the top Wall Street Firms have not reneged on their commitments to summer analysts/FT analysts. Perhaps there something to be said for "doing the right thing"/success in this industry.

superdiduper, what's the deal with you and blackstone, by the way? i noticed that pretty much every blackstone-related thread in recent memory was just bumped by you. you thinking about shopping your current offer to blackstone? just curious.

I believe all FT contracts are "at will" there are no legal repercussions for leaving, although unofficial blacklists may still exist.

while i would argue that character is important, i'd agree that it's fine to renege. you need to look out for yourself... when times sucked this year for the banks, they didn't think twice about cutting analysts. if you get an offer where you feel better about fit, the people, job security, or exit opps -- you should do it.

burning bridges is bad, but you're at a stage in your career where that doesn't matter all that much. if you are going to renege, you should make it clear to the preferred firm that you will be doing so in order to accept their offer... wall street might be a small place, but i highly doubt someone is going to go to those lengths just to damage an analysts rep. waste of time

The inflation of one's worth (or an analyst's worth) on this board is laughable.

The concept and term of "burning bridges" is misrepresented on this board. You may damage a relationship with your actions, but you have to TRY to burn a bridge by giving a BIG fuck you.

Let us use a sports example. John Elway in 1983 was drafted by the Baltimore Colts. However, Elway had enpahtically stated that he would not play for the Colts and if they drafted him, without simultaneously trading him, he would go play baseball for the New York Yankees. Therefore, Irsay, the Colt's owner, drafted and traded Elway to the Broncos. This is an exmaple of regenning an offer. Elway thought he would be successful elsewhere and told the Colts "Thanks, but no thanks." Now the Broncos accepted him with open arms and any team in the NFL, even the Colts, wanted a piece of him when he contract was closing after his first few years.

Though Elway was a better football player than we are/were analysts what I am trying to say is, if you are good you are good. You can reneg Morgan Stanley and then apply and get an offer after your MBA. The "bridges" we walk before the VP level have no water under them and are close to the ground. So when you do "burn" one there is little to no reprcussion. Banks understand that you are inexperienced and are making the decision for a reason you are not telling the bank fuck you instead you are saying "Thanks, but no thanks." In 3-6 months HR won't hold it against you nor will your team. Will it be in your file? Yes. Will it bar you from the company? No.

As for a black list? Are you fucking serious? Do you really think Morgan Stanley calls Goldman because it is on your resume and asks what happened to the offer. No one gives a shit, they are most likely grinning ear to ear to take someone away from a competitor.

Now, if you are VP level and above your actions can start burning bridges because if you leave you take business, revenue fees, with you. That is when the bridges start rising and the water becomes deeper, and the higher you go the more gasoline is covering these bridges. This is because when you fuck with people's money, or the compay's, there is no way to explain it other than FUCK YOU!

So in short take #7's path and say thanks but no thanks and explain what happened. Just as he did not think the Colt's offense suited his strengths maybe being in a sector group at the bank suits your strengths better than being on a product group at your summer bank

I agree with tbroker. Taking a less severe tone, I think the reasons why people come to this board and ask a question about reneging is because they have not been faced with a similar decision in their lifetime. For them, choosing their first full-time job is a huge decision. With several years of experience in hindsight now, I can say that certain decisions I agonized about were an easy call. Reneging on an offer doesn't happen to be one of them, though I do agree with tbroker in that you have to do what's best for yourself. Just be gracious about it and come up with a reason that's cogent and believable. For example, if you wanted to move to GS TMT from a lesser bank, you don't have to respond to HR's questions with "Duh, isn't it obvious? It's Goldman, let's be serious here." You can say that you were interested in doing technology transactions; that you had a strong desire to be back in San Francisco where your family or relatives are from; and so forth. HR will try to come to their own conclusions and maybe it doesn't really matter what you say, but just be polite about it. Even if they're skeptical about what you mean, they really have no reason to doubt what you're saying. Besides, it'll be just a matter of days before they call the next best candidate, offer them your former job, and watch them accept it.

I have never reneged on my acceptances and hopefully I will not have to face such decisions. In the past, I've been able to manage my interviewing processes to the extent that I had enough time to review all the key data points without having to make premature commitments. However, one instance where I did worry about "burning a bridge" was when I left one BB bank for another within a year. It was tough because I really fit well into the culture of BB #1, but I also had a good relationship with the team I was working, and BB #2 essentially hired my whole team altogether. I had the option to stay at my former firm but decided after much initial hesitance that I should move on.

It was a tough decision but for the most part, it was a good one. Maybe it wasn't the best, but once I committed to accepting the other bank's offer, I decided I owed it to myself to make the most of the opportunity. At the same time, I was very cordial with everyone I worked with at my former firm; I sent all the VP's and MD's I regularly interacted with some thank-you e-mails and hoping they would keep in touch. I apologized that I had to leave on such order, but people seemed to understand, or at least were more willing to accept my words at face value because I was being as sincere as I could. And as it turns out, these same people at BB #1 did keep in touch with me, and also come back to me a year later with an opportunity to interview for another position. I ended up declining the interview as I wanted to move to private equity, but I was excited to know that I hadn't "burned any bridges."

At the end of the day, you have to remember that most bridges run both ways. Some people are going to hate your guts if you renege, and there's nothing you can do about that. However, if you're cordial and sincere about your intentions, you've at least created the best opportunity for yourself to go back to your former employer in the future. And in this day and age, with all the turmoil on Wall Street, being sincere is just the best thing you can do.

Easily the best 2 posts on this topic I've read. Thanks guys.