Will a HH work with you if you renege an offer with one their clients?
Will a PE HH work with you if you renege an offer with one their clients?
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Was the original offer with one of their clients? If yes, absolutely not.
If it was with another client, they might still be hesitant but probably situation-dependent.
“Would you want to work with you?”
Based on the most helpful WSO content, reneging on an offer can have significant consequences in the finance industry, including the potential for being blacklisted by firms and facing a series of rejections. While the context doesn't directly address the specific scenario of working with a headhunter (HH) after reneging on an offer with one of their clients, it's reasonable to infer that headhunters, who value their relationships with their clients highly, might be hesitant to work with someone known to renege on offers. This is because headhunters' reputations are partly built on the reliability and quality of the candidates they present to their clients. If a candidate reneges on an offer, it could reflect poorly on the headhunter and potentially damage their relationship with the client. Therefore, while not explicitly stated, it's a smart conclusion that reneging on an offer could make it more challenging to work with the same or other headhunters, especially if the reneging becomes known in the industry.
Sources: Current IBankers: What would you do if a summer candidate reneged another offer to sign with your firm?, How exactly should I renege?, 7 Tips on Reneging, Reneging
Why would you need to work with a HH if you reneg on their client? If you reneg on their client that would imply you accepted an offer elsewhere. If you reneg and didn't already have another offer in hand (or somehow blew it), then the HH probably wouldn't want to work with you based on that alone...
You'll still need the HH for future roles e.g. Sr assoc,vp,...
Ah, was assuming this is the same instance of recruiting. You're still an analyst so would say you should take it 1 step at a time, not to mention it's not usually the same recruiters managing more senior roles as the junior ones (at least in my exp). Generally though no, if you reneg the recruiter will not be particularly inclined to work with you again unless you are a very compelling candidate for a particular role. There's plenty of good candidates out there for them to want to risk other clients being soured to working with them based on your historical behavior. Unless the difference in position is that significant I would generally advise against reneging if you want to keep that door open.
Curious to hear, would people here recommend reneging on a mm pe associate offer for a mf offer assuming same geography and industry and goal is to stay in pe long term? Or would not being able to use that hh later (for lateral associate, sr. Associate, vp, etc.) and reputation damage outweigh? Consensus seems if it's 2 marginal roles, don't do it, but obv this is mm vs mf...
Is the MM firm owned entirely by the investment team or is there large outside ownership?
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