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I hope it doesn't for you, but I've seen this turn out very badly. HR, not to mention senior bankers, at all of these firms are friends with each other. I wish it wasn't like this but some people involved with recruiting have huge egos. Mentally prepare to lose both offers. Good luck.
So you would suggest just going to the lower BB and lateraling after 6 months to a better place?
4 or 5 months into the job, you will realize that being surrounded by reasonable people to work with outweighs prestige, but sure, you'll have opportunities to lateral (most likely at the 1 year mark)
Follow this advice
Quick anecdote. This summer, my group had an intern that someone found out had reneged on another bank to come to ours. Kid was great to work with, but wasn't given a return offer for this reason. To this day he doesn't know why (unless someone told him, which we were told not to do).
Damn that's brutal. I understand the negativity towards reneging, but with the crazy recruiting cycle, you can't really blame a guy for reneging a MM offer for GS.
I felt the same way, but nothing I could do. Back when I was in college, recruiting happened within a couple of months during the fall. Now it ranges 9, 10, 11 months which I dislike.
Which bank?
Who told you?
What about reneging big 4 for investment banking? Lower risk?
Lower risk because it will be harder for them to figure you out. It is harder amongst BB/EB in NYC because people know each other and word could get around, although this is still very unlikely to come up unless someone is out to get you. Most bankers are to busy to care, let alone do something about it.
Have seen this go both ways. But more often than not, it's not a big deal. Just be polite, keep it short, and don't mention the name of the place you're going to. If you didn't have a lot of mid-senior folks super engaged in your recruiting process, you should be fine.
I have made strong connections (including a few MDs) at the lower BB and most called me when I signed saying they are happy to see me joining next year. I hardly know anyone at the top BB besides one MD who pushed me hard. Any thoughts on how to approah this ... I suspect the moment I speak with HR my phone will be blowing up.
Thing is bankers view candidates as “deals”. We got emails telling us to close the interns on their offer. They might get mad but juniors leave all the time and some mds see analysts as a seat, not a person.
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i am confused and irrationally angry about your post. what is the meaning of this?
this situation really blows. if i were in your shoes i would go for it and try to hide it from the top bank, but we also had a situation at my bank this summer where we didn't give a kid a return because someone on a call brought up that he reneged another offer to join us. in our case, we told him it was because he reneged (he screwed up a few times this summer too but even if he was good I think it woul'dve ended badly for him). it honestly surprised me that it happened because the MDs I work for don't really care about the juniors at all, but I guess there are a few at every firm who take these things seriously.
.
Oof big risk, prob not worth it
This situation sucks but it is just way too easy to get caught if you renege from BB to BB. Years ago, I was working at GS/MS/JPM (now at a boutique closer to home). An intern we had was invited to a diligence call to take notes. A BMO/RBC type bank was also on the call and a VP of theirs saw his name on the list with our email format. Turns out he had reneged on them... BMO/RBC VP tells his MD, that MD tells our GS/JPM/MS MD. Boom, return offer gone for what was probably our top intern. There was also an instance a summer later where HR found out through another bank's HR. Again, return offer gone. This time, his school recruiting team was involved and he was effectively blacklisted across the major banks.
I empathize with your situation but wanted to warn you. A lower BB is still a BB. I guarantee you that bank "rankings" don't matter once you start your job.
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