Lost the Dream, Feel Defeated, Need Help

Wow, can't believe someone would do that. Good luck with the FT job search, hope you find something man

Can you not tell HR that they were edited? Since you have proof of the originals? Really sorry dude this completely blows :( 

Wait I think heard about something like this happening at my firm, pm me?

Can you describe what the messages said - reach out to people in your team to talk about the situation? I’m honestly pretty skeptical that this whole thing played out the way you described it. Like how heavily edited were the messages and what was said originally?

Let's go get that fucker!!!

Just curious, what was in the messages? If you said some racist / sexist / fucked up things, then maybe lesson learned... Otherwise, how was this any of HR's business? Sorry dude. 

How did this person even get your texts then? Sounds like your close buddy fucked you. 

This is bizarre. I’m not one for outing people but if true and you know for sure who did it, I would throw his or her name, school and bank out. May be scummy but what they did to you is definitely scummy, and you’d be saving the industry from what sounds like a future VP from hell.

Yeah depends what's in the texts you sent to some degree, but that was a lowbrow move. I've never heard of anything like this... 

Just being an ass but really want to see the message.

Don’t even know what I’d do in the scenario. Best of luck with FT recruiting, to echo everyone else hopefully someone will be understanding

Edited in what way? Changed the texts and attributed it to you? Sounds illegal 

If they just cropped it/took it out of context, then that’s a big difference 

Rip pretty sure you won’t tell us what bank you were at, but I heard PJT M&A gave out returns to all interns but one. Wonder if that was you buddy

Thx for the friendly reminder, I’ll keep this in mind. But keep your head mate. Something better is in store for you.

Lesson learned. Now you know that the Lloyd Blankfein that lurks on WSO is not the real Llyod Blankfein, and you should not be emailing GS internally about POUNDING IN THE ASS.   Live and learn.  

Seriously tho, that's pretty messed up. Sorry that this happened.  Really messed up. I believe your "friend" warrants a beat-down, but please take that as a theoretical, not prescription. 

I mean, this guy has got to know he's torpedoes your return offer and made life much more difficult for you. What's really in it for him? It's being a major dick for no reason. 

What a scumbag... It’d be a shame if one of your female friends came out with rape allegations against him......

Depending on the severity of these edits would obtaining legal counsel be an option you are willing to explore?
Your unedited texts are attached to your carrier account and an attorney would be able to walk you through how to obtain the unedited versions.

First off, fuck that guy. It's a scumbag thing to do. Seriously, that's the kind of shitty character you want to cut out of your life in general. Just one question - was this email or text messages? Let's be real though - there are HR issues here too. Forgetting the scumbag, what you did could violate some policy the bank has or HR might just not want to deal with the headache that you could potentially cause in the future as a result of this. Without knowing what you said or how the messages were edited, HR could easily see this as a potential liability and say that you aren't worth the risk. It's a crappy thing to hear being said, but it's the truth. As much as this scumbag deserves to get karmic retribution for going to HR, HR's hands may very well be tied when you consider the political climate (ie #MeToo, BLM, etc.) we are in right now. No bank wants to deal with a firestorm of bad PR by extending an offer to someone who was insensitive to -Insert Whatever Group you made NSFW comments about here- and having it come out. 

Second, and I'm going to repeat the same thing that everyone else has said - call a lawyer that specializes in employment law. If you are certain the messages have been tampered with and can prove it, discussing it with a lawyer will offer guidance and clarity. While no bank wants a lawsuit on their hands, whoever it was that forwarded this will most likely get screwed by you bringing any legal action against the bank if your claims about tampering/editing are true.  IF you go that route, he may lose his offer/get fired as a result. 

Third, and I don't think anyone here has mentioned this, but Finance is a small world. You need to prepare yourself for the longer-term impact of this. You will need to explain why you are interviewing/didn't get a return offer. You also need to look at contingency options and broaden your net a bit in case this hurts your chances of getting an IB/Banking role in the near term. Was this an OCR position? Or did you find out about it on your own? If it was OCR, you may have to explain the situation to On-Campus recruiting because I'm sure that you might get a call from them too. I don't know what their response will be or if they bar you from future OCR opportunities. If that's the case, you may have to go it alone, which sucks. If you networked your way into this job, reach out to your contact and ask to speak with him about this as well. Thank him for his support, but be honest and say that you want some clarity, and see if he can provide any. I'd also seriously look at roles outside of banking as a prepared contingency plan. It sucks, but it's definitely a good thing to do so you have fallback opportunities in place. 

lol trying to delete and unsend any incriminating stuff for me now but theres so much shit talk and banters in the chats that if it happens it happens we all goin down boys

The only thing Orwell got wrong was the year. The modern generation has become trained CCP agents stamping out any non woke views and destroying freedom of speech. 

Absolutely pathetic...I wish I could help you in some capacity. That guy/girl is a total loser. I can't believe people actually hatch plans like this in their heads. 

My first reaction is that whoever did this to you needs to catch a beat down asap. Hard to prove if nobody sees it happen and very effective at making sure they don't do something like this again.

Second, try to relax and understand that you will recover from this and sort things out. Talk to an employment lawyer and see what your options are (like everyone else said) but, most importantly, begin figuring out where you go from here with your career. Start reaching out to literally every bank that you can and trying to recruit there / building some contacts to the extent that you don't have them already; you will likely need to cast a wide net in case word gets around to some other banks about this (note that there is no way every bank finds out about it so you're not super fucked). You will need to have a story about why you didn't get a return offer and will need to navigate that during recruitment, but you aren't the first person that's had to address that in an interview and has still gotten the job. I would focus on reaching out to banks and just being the best damn candidate that you can be; some bank will pick you up. It may not be a "top group" or your number one choice, but you will get into banking full time.

Lastly, someone noted that finance is a small world and this could get around. Yes, it could but people also have short memories and don't care enough to pay a ton of attention to some random intern story. Also, I've heard plenty of stories over the years about intern fuckups and firings but I can't tell you the name of a single person from those stories.

What the fuck? My jaw is on the floor..

very interesting that this is all of a sudden deleted? Nothing to hide if these texts truly were edited and not just cropped out of context with racist/sexist messages in them...

deleted

Really feels like we're not hearing both sides of the story here

I see a lot of posts above about going to see a lawyer.  I'm of two minds on that. 1) the dude deserves a bloody nose legally-speaking, and you can put the fear into him.

2) I am not sure you have much of a case and it may never see the light of day. Not worth spending $ on legal fees for it. 

All he'd have to say is "Your honor, OP was sending me inappropriate messages, unbecoming of the workplace. Here they are in Exhibit A.  I felt HR ought to know, for the safety of others.  It's not my fault they decided those actions warranted dismissal. I would never have wanted that. I only wanted HR to know of deeply unprofessional and inappropriate messages."

You can see a lawyer for a consult, but really not sure there's too much that can actually be done. Best to just hire some dude to break a leg. Or perhaps if HE sent you inappropriate messages back you can send those to HR and to his school and make sure he gets his share of this misery cake.

PM me - I've orchestrated beat downs before. We can negotiate a price. Have some friends in EY NYC audit that don't feel they are fairly compensated and could use the extra change.

On a more serious note: there are tons of people like this on Wall Street, a lot of them come from target schools and have an entitled mindset. I'd love to beat the fuck out of them but I'd probably get sued sideways and deported to Guantanamo bay. 

Could someone aware me on this situation. Out of the loop.