Late response after verbal offer
So I’m in an arguably bad situation and would love some advice. I’m an intern at a BB, in a unique program where I intern all 4 years of graduation (“part time” during the school year). I was in wealth management the two years sophomore and junior and am interning in IB for my last year before graduation. I was given a verbal offer from my team in IB, then suddenly two months or so ago, I was told I no longer “may be a good fit”. I do not have the official rejection as of yet. I reached out to my old manager (the hiring manager) from WM, on a high level explained what happened and he said he will start the process to get my application in for mid June start date. I agreed and said thank you etc, he noted a lot of people were on vacation so it may take a while to see traffic. A month later, there was still no update so I followed up. He said “I hope to have a good update for you tomorrow. this is top of my priority list and I will send you an update ASAP”. Two weeks passed and I followed up again last Wednesday, with no response yet. Meanwhile my IB manager asked to catch up, and I’m not sure if I should tell him I’m planning to go back to my old WM team given i didn’t get an offer in writing. Should I keep my hopes for the WM team given the hiring manager was very enthusiastic to have me back?? Even tho there’s no official email traffic? I’m not sure if should give on hopes on going back there with limited updates
This is a really good question and a true one off in the sense that most people haven't been in your shoes before. I can tell you how I would approach the situation though, and it may be helpful to at least use as a starting point.
First, I would decide how badly I want to work in IB. If you really want to be a part of that world and you also really liked the team, then maybe don't concern yourself too much with the fit comment. After all, you did receive a verbal commitment pretty quickly, no? There could be a million reasons as to why there you received a verbal and then they delayed on a written, and but it most likely comes down to you being a solid but not top choice. Either that or one or two folks maybe rethought your personality? I dont know truthfully, this really doesnt happen often in the working world. Regardless, you will never know, so don't run different scenarios through your head.
Second, at least take the call with the IBD manager and let them talk until you can get a sense of where the call is headed. More likely than not, it'll be to apologize for the delay between the physical offer, and a conversation to ensure you are still interested. It could also be to let you down gently, indicating that you may not be able to hold on to the IBD offer. Either way, there is not much to prepare for other than deciding if you would truly prefer to do IBD or WM. Just go in being prepared for the best and for the worst, and with a decision made on whether or not you want WM or IBD best case (even with a shitty IBD team that has cold feet about you).
Lastly, the advice. I think IBD is a much better place to start out your career and would advise that if all else is equal (it clearly isnt - the WM team seems a way better cultural fit), you have the best options down the road with IBD. If you hate the team or culture (I dont think you do as you didnt speak badly of them) you can always lateral after a year. As long as they arent downright miserable to work with, I would recommend IBD. Unless of course you hated / didnt really like / couldnt tolerate IBD, which in that case take WM.
Thank you this is very helpful! Yes, very unique situation. After giving some consideration, I decided that I do not like the culture or the IBD team enough to stay. Like you said, it does more harm than good to run different scenarios in my head but I do not feel confident I would be given an offer in IBD anyways after last conversation with manager. For WM however, I would love to take the offer and stay. I am concerned because despite the hiring manager/old managers enthusiasm to have me back, there is an horrifically long delay between when he gave me the verbal offer and the written one (I have yet to receive the written one), so the worrisome part of me wonders if this will ever happen and might get stuck with no offer
I see the true predicament, I appreciate the explanation. Truth be told, the safest thing is to try your hardest to land both offers. I would probably connect with the IBD manager as one offer is better than none, and hear what he / she has to say. In the event that it results in an offer, request it in writing and ask for 48 hours to review with your parents / an attorney. I always request this review period even though I have been out of college for a minute now. No one of any reasonable intelligence will question having a proper amount of time to review the offer letter. Once you hop off the phone with the IBD manager, assuming an offer was extended, email your PWM connection. If he doesnt respond within 4-6 hours, give a phone call, and leave a voicemail being very candid about the situation. Explain how much time you have spent at the bank and remind him that more than anything, you want to work on his team. If he gets back to you before the offer deadline and presents you with an offer, fantastic! If not, go the IBD route and look to lateral. I had a TON of internship experience, similar to you. Therefore, I can say with confidence if you hate IBD or the team then you can lateral after one year. Do your best to walk away with one offer. Also, dont forget that regardless of outcome with this one BB, you can continue to recruit right now. You can always renege, if you REALLY dont want to work in IBD, particularly with this team.
I am no expert and this is a really difficult situation, sorry you ended up in this spot. Just giving you the overview on how I would play it, being as conservative as possible, and doing everything I can to ensure you walk away with at least one FT offer. After four internships, the bank owes YOU that. If you end up with no offers, you will have great experience and can for sure get a reputable role in WM / IBD if you hustle hard enough. Best of luck to you, and again I am sorry you found yourself in a very unfair position.
Have the call with the IBD manager and see what they say. They either tell you you don’t have the offer or you do (but I imagine it is probably to let you down nicely on the phone rather than in writing).
You don’t need to decide beforehand which you want, because you might not have the IBD offer at all. Just have the call and see what they say.
Sounds like the MD in WM was also kinda ghosting you, it honestly might just be that they are super busy and forgot to reply/things came up. But that is a little concerning that they said they would reply and didn’t, and then didn’t reply to your follow up.
Is there a chance they could have consulted with your current team/HR and heard about something that caused you to lose the IBD offer in the first place? Did you fuck up at all in the internship?
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