Going back on my word
Here's my situation: I am doing an MBA now and have accepted a full-time offer from a BB to join them later this year. I now believe that I have made a mistake in accepting the offer. I've thought hard about it and believe that hedge funds would be a better fit for my personality and aspirations. I admit it's my mistake but I would like to correct it now before it's too late. I have two questions:
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Would I suffer any long-term "damage" if I were to renege on the BB offer? I've seen a thread elsewhere that it's not such a big deal for analysts, but what about for associates like me?
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If I were to be so lucky as to get some hedge fund interviews and they ask whether I have accepted any offers elsewhere, how should I answer the question? Should I be truthful?
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Any other thoughts on how I should handle this?
Thanks a lot for your help!
1.) I imagine you would definitely burn some bridges at the bank you renege from. That said - it's not like it never happens...
2.) I wouldn't divulge that you have already accepted an offer elsewhere. That means you are under contract, and often it is illegal for them to hire you. If they ask, say you HAVE an offer at XYZ bank, not that you've accepted it.
3.) If you're sure HF is what you want, definitely don't withdraw from your other offer until you have a HF offer in hand. It would be pretty shitty to quit your IBD job and then not land a HF offer...
captk, thanks. On your second point above, it's pretty well known that acceptance deadline for BB full time offer is 31 Dec 07. therefore, telling the HF guys that I have an offer at hand is as good as telling them that I have accepted it? Isn't it likely that they will ask point blank whether I have accepted the offer ?
I do know that the BB banks have one or two offers trickling out still. You could tell them you have a special situation. I doubt they would push it that hard.
Think about it - if you are willing to come work for them, and they want you, what do they care what bridges you burn? I doubt they'll pry to deeply.
So I'm sitting in one of the SEO seminars this past summer and there's this panel of BB reps in front of our summer class talking about a couple of things. An associate (IBD) and a recruiter (for associates) agreed on one issue (there were others, but this post is about one topic in particular):
What's the most important benefit you get from a business school? The network.
At HBS, the first thing you lose if you renege on an offer? The network.
It hurts the school's reputation in inviting the same company to return to campus a small bit, (to what degree, I don't know). Because Wall Street is the kind of place that just about everyone knows everyone else, other firms will hear about it. For GS, they hold onto all of your apps, and keep the records for quite a while, they also know if you renege on another firm...
"Reputations can take lifetimes to develop, but seconds to destroy" -Quote
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1) Why would you loose your network? 2) How on earth would GS possibly know if you renege on another firm?
To the OP: first find a job at a HF, then renege. Do it politely with a decent excuse for going to the hf (example: say you've been diagnosed with a chronic illness that requires a lot of rest therefore you cannot handle the ibd lifestyle etc etc). People will still be pissed off, but they'll forget.
Never fear, keep interviewing and if you get a job at a fund, reneg the BB.
And you won't "lose your network" whatever that means.
Dont worry about burning bridges and go after the HF and only after you get an HF offer do you reneg on the BB.
Although some on this site believe that wall street is such a small place that several years down the line you will run into someone still so pissed off that you reneged on an offer years ago that they either try to ruin you, dont offer you a job, etc., i myself am in the camp that no one cares. Go ahead and reneg and maybe a few guys will be pissed for a few weeks but they can always go out and hire another associate and then they will forget who you were.
"So I'm sitting in one of the SEO seminars this past summer and there's this panel of BB reps in front of our summer class talking about a couple of things. An associate (IBD) and a recruiter (for associates) agreed on one issue (there were others, but this post is about one topic in particular):"
As to this....they are on the panel in the capacity of representing their company, what do you expect them to say?????
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