I'll be reneging on an accepted internship later this week--any advice?

Hi WSO.

I'm a current college junior, and just received another internship offer. I accepted an offer a while ago (mid December) for a summer internship with an insurance company (MetLife/Prudential) doing Business Development.

I wasn't completely satisfied (in part the pay, but mostly because I wasn't interested in the work), and have been applying and interviewing on-and-off for the past few months.

Earlier today I received an offer from a bank (Nomura/BNP Paribas) for a summer internship in their Credit Risk Management Group. I'm farrr more interested in this type of work, both are located in NYC and the pay for the risk internship is ~3x that of what I have accepted.

I plan on calling the recruiter and the manager of my group at the insurance company and speaking to them in person, being apologetic and blunt.

Would you guys have any advice for what to say when reneging?

 
Best Response

Just be honest. They won't be offended. Thank them for their time, and let them know that even though their firm is great you got an offer doing a different type of work that better aligns with your career goals. Been in your position before and was stressing, looking back it wasn't a big deal at all.

 

You haven't signed a formal contract, so technically you aren't even reneging. So I would just go with the BB and email the MM saying my situation has changed and politely say you no longer have interest in accepting their offer.

However, if you really are quite worried about loosing both offers, tell the BB you have had a previous offer, and whether it is ok if you renege with that previous offer for them (99% of the time, they should say it is ok). Meaning even if the MM contacts the BB, they won't care.

 

Same thing happened with me. I verbally accepted via email but then reneged. Just make sure you call the HR rather than send an email; be genuinely sorry and explain certain situations changed and things should be ok.

 

No contract means no huge issue for choosing another offer. I won't even call it reneging because there was no signed contract. Worst case someone will think you operated in bad faith but they won't call your bulge colleagues and say you reneged because you technically didn't.

 

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