Reneging Return Offer

Hey all - 

Current senior here. Interned with a small boutique (~30 people) this summer. Got a return offer with a week to decide and accepted it. I love the people, great culture and team, but felt that a) salary is very low and I could do better and b) I could've been worked a bit harder. Well, now, all the other firms I applied to over the summer are asking me to interview. 

I'm going to take the interviews, but I wanted to see if anyone has any insight on how reneging on a firm after interning with them will go... is this common? Acceptable? Keep in mind I got pretty close with my team this summer and would honestly feel horrible... however, I don't want to sell myself short just because I like my team and don't want to upset them.

Anyone in similar boats? Open for general discussion, comments, advice. Thanks!

13 Comments
 

Agree w comment above. Did the same w a boutique probably double the size of yours w a questionable culture. At the end of the day it’s what’s best for you, and a return offer decision within one week is predatory

 

Just reneged my summer firm so in a similar position. They only gave me 48 hours so I didn’t have much of an opportunity to look elsewhere but at the end of the day, it is your career and you can/should be selfish in choosing what the best option is

 

I reached out to my mentors and other interns first to share the news and it went pretty positively, they seemed happy for me to pursue the new opportunity. Can’t really answer about my old boss, sent out my renege email on Friday and haven’t gotten a response yet so not sure how it’s gonna go. Tried to maintain a professional but personal tone to thank them for all of the help this summer, happy to share what I sent if you PM

Edit: got response from program manager, obviously wasn’t great but wasn’t as bad as I thought, I was just asked to disclose new team (I declined to tell them)

 

I wouldn’t worry about it. Do what’s best for you. Are these other firms in a totally different tier / market? I assume so, otherwise it wouldn’t be worth reneging for. If you’re talking about reneging on brown gibbons lang for Citi, those are way different ecosystems and you’re not going to be running into BGL -> less ways for it to come back to bite you. Just do what’s best for you. No one at these firms give a shit about you, at all. So take care of numero uno

 

I'm in exactly the same boat rn. They gave me the return offer and told me that I would come across as sketchy if I took too long to think about it, so I accepted quickly without giving much thought. The people were great, work was good, but I want to pivot into a very different field. Definitely dreading this email.

I have heard that some universities punish you in some way for reneging so I would look into that.

 

Assuming you’re moving up market, do it and do what’s best for your career ALWAYS. Remember, these places will send you packing your shit at the drop of a hat. 

 

Just did the same thing, small boutique with 15 ppl in London. They also only gave me a week and I had to decline. Do what you gotta do but understand that bridge will be burnt (they were really not happy - but at the same time thats indicative of the culture at the firm, probably bullet dodged)

 
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