I’m in a position now where I have an offer at a bank that I’m somewhat happy with, but it’s by no means my first choice. It’s a smaller bank so don’t want to give too much info, but think somewhere between Lazard and Baird with regards to prestige. The issue is my offer expires next week, and I need to make a very tough decision.
I have a few banks that are definitely more prestigious that I’m waiting on (JPM, Centerview, BAML, etc) where I have had some good networking chats and a few people that said they will push my resume. Obviously all of those banks are extremely competitive though, and I’m in no way confident that I can land one. On one hand, I landed this offer without much networking and got really confident in my recruiting chances, but I also didn’t even make it to Goldmans super day so I don’t know why it would be any different at a place like JPM (my networking was similar at both).
I’m just worried that if I play this safe, I’m always going to wonder about what could have been and think I sold myself short, but on the other hand I would feel like the biggest idiot in the world if I turned down this offer and didn’t get any others. Any advice? The issue is from what I’ve heard, the banks I’m waiting on won’t be making offers for another month+, so it’s not like I can try to buy myself another week and that would solve things.
So correct me if I am wrong, but you have an offer at hand and nothing else. It doesnt seem like you have interviews anywhere else.
If you do not accept your offer, you are back to square one and could potentially have nothing else. You could try to reach out to other banks and say I have an offer that expires next week and need to be able to accelerate the interview process if given the opportunity to interview.
Wait until the day before and if you do not have an offer anywhere else, then accept this offer. It is a easy decision. "A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush"
take the job why is this even a question
if you go to a let's say t3 bank you can always lateral up later in your career
if you dont get into banking you are going to be screwed
this has been answered before...and its easy
(keep in mind, i am a trader, and my response is rooted in how traders are expected to behave)
1) accept the exploding offer 2) continue to interview 3) if you get a "much better" offer, accept it and get confirmation....only THEN let the exploding offer know that you won't be able to take the job.
Thank them for the opportunity...but due to family circumstances out of your control, unfortunately you won't be able to continue with accepting their position, and you need to recuse yourself. Don't worry, there are 500 other kids who would love to take your place...and the firm won't have a problem filling your space, and your name will quickly be forgotten. You might be tempted to lie...but the smarter play is to keep the reason confidential (imagine if you needed to become a fulltime caregiver for a sick aging grandfather...you may use this exact same language "i'm sorry, but due to family circumstances, i sadly won't be able to continue with my position at xyz firm and need to terminate my employment contract. Thank you for the opportunity.").
Don't update LinkedIn or social media with your new position...just become a ghost...so you don't burn bridges.
Don't know who threw MS at you, is exactly what I'd suggest: accept the exploding offer, don't update your social media (keep it all low profile), continue with the other applications, if you get a better offer, politely recuse yourself in vague terms and accept the better offer. Yeah, it's a slight dick move to renege like this, but life's a game and you're just playing it.
companies that give out exploding offers are assholes...and they deserve to be reneged on if their applicants get better offer. You as a student looking for a great internship, or your 1st job out of college are already at a disadvantage....and firms that look to take advantage of that are scum...so i have no sympathy for them...and neither should you.
all that said...i would be more willing to play this game with a FT offer, rather than a summer internship, if your school mainly recruits via OCR and this strategy runs the risk of getting you barred from OCR.
Getting an IB internship is the most important thing at this stage. You'll get plenty of other opportunities to trade up in the game of life:
Also, look at the bios of anyone age 40+ whose career you'd like to have: I think what you'll see is a lot of guys who did IB, but not much skew toward the top banks.
Point being, getting into IB is a lot more important than getting a top brand. Doing anything to jeopardize the former for the latter wouldn't be rational.
Some might say that you're not really jeopardizing anything if you have an airtight-sounding scheme like the "family emergency" plan mentioned above. I'd agree, if I thought it was airtight. But I don't think it is.
The lower-tier firms have plenty of experience handing out offers before the higher-tier firms. They've been around the block a few times and I wouldn't just assume they do nothing to protect the offer. For example, after I accepted my internship offer I had an email from my school's career office an hour later congratulating me; not sure if the bank was just notifying them for stats or what, but certainly would've been hard to trade up after that.