How screwed am I? (Reneging on JPM/GS/MS for PE)

I'm a sophomore at a target school. I recently received a summer offer at a top PE firm (think Blackstone or KKR), and reneged on an IB offer with JPM/GS/MS directly to the bankers on my team / my recruiter OVER A PHONE CALL (thanks WSO) for "personal reasons."

Making this post because I got a call shortly after from another HR rep asking me where I'm going and to renege in writing, via email.

I avoided the question and haven't sent an email yet, but uhhh, what the actual hell do I do in this situation?

I'll preface the next part with the fact that yes, I should have given this decision more thought. 

That being said - internally speaking, how big of a deal (to bankers) is someone reneging on an offer? Is it likely that bankers in the group with the power to end my career in finance will either A) find out, or B) care enough to do something about it? 

And most importantly, if the megafund finds out, is this something they would rescind my offer for? Is there anything I can do now to mitigate total career suicide?

11 Comments
 

Thanks - really appreciate your input here. There's probably no use worrying about it at this point, but how screwed would I be if the megafund found out?

 

Don't expect to recruit at that bank again but just take your PE offer and move on. Nobody will smear your name around the street you're just a kid and they don't really care other than the recruiting inconvenience. Send it in writing to the recruiter "I am writing to let you know I have accepted employment elsewhere and must rescind my acceptance of my internship offer with bank" or something equally formal that says absolutely nothing other than "I'm not working for you lol".

 
Most Helpful

Just be professional in your emails. Nobody will remember you in a week and they will replace you within days. Go to the PE firm and do your best to get a return offer. Just know that you'll likely never work at the renegged firm again.

FWIW, it wasn't IB but I did something similar when I was interning. Never had any impact whatsoever on my career and actually helped it since I was starting in a "better spot". 

 

In a somewhat similar spot but for FT roles. There’s a lot of advice for reneging internships but any advice would be appreciated on how to send that email for reneging from a FT role. Who do I send the email to? What to include? What to exclude? What should subject be?

 

be professional about it but don't say where, lol Wells Fargo gets 100s of these emails every summer after their sophomores do the inevitable stepping stone move and go to BAML or Citi or something lol, just don't say where you're going and don't make a LinkedIn announcement post, be discreet about it, lay low until summer starts and you'll be fine. The key here is professionalism, discretion and order, the HR people will forget within weeks, but play it safe bro

 

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