Reneging on an IB Internship Offer
I accepted an offer at a bulge bracket investment bank in NYC, but now I got an offer in Europe at a better firm and really want to take it. How common is reneging on an offer, and is it really that bad? How do you even do it?
why would you want to go to Europe? are you from europe originally? If not NYC is much better.
Seconding above. I'm assuming the other offer is not in IB but HF/PE or something? I'd never want to leave NY if it's finance but that's just me.
No, the investment bank in London is more top tier and has a bigger name. Yes I am from Europe originally. Why do you think NYC is better for finance? You mean in terms of career and expanding your network?
You will make significantly more money in the US than in London. you make 80-85k GBP all-in as an analyst in London. That's about 100-110k in USD. Whereas in the US you make 85k as a base plus ~50k as a bonus, so 135k all-in. You pay less in taxes as well. There are more exit opportunities in the US than in Europe. Banking is more respected here. And, even if you're at a lower tier BB in the US (vs a higher tier BB in Europe), you can always lateral to a better firm after a year. But regardless of whether or not you do, deal flow and deal sizes will be better and higher in the US compared to Europe.
Yes exactly. Opportunities (and exposure) are far greater in NY not to mention pay. I also prefer NY as a city but that's just me - some people hate it. Ultimately up to you where you want to go - eg do you even care about pay/opportunities or do u just prefer London lifestyle (lifestyle is a big factor and don't underemphasize it compared to pay/opps) but just remember it's so much harder coming to NY from Europe than the other way around. Should you want to go back to London at some point, that should be waaaayyy easier than the reverse.
Thank you so much for all of your replies, they were so helpful. If I really hate NYC, do you think I can go to London for full-time the year after? Will they be willing to hire me as an Analyst at like GS/JPM/MS, without having done the Summer Analyst program previously? I will feel like having experience on Wall Street will be a definite plus.
Couple of things:
If you intern a BB in NYC (even if it's CS/DB/Citi/BAML/Barc/UBS), your resume will be absolutely solid for London recruiting, you won't need to worry at all for that. The issue is contacts/networking - which I assure you is far less important in London than in NYC hence when we all say here that going NY-->LDN is so much easier than LDN-->NY. Nevertheless do still try to get in contact with teams over there since your school in the US may not be filtered through by the online application systems in London (not sure about this) and the issue is you won't be able to go for in-person meetups but again not as much of an issue given lower importance of networking (but there's a careful way you have to go about networking during a summer analyst stint which I'll touch on next).
Assuming you'd only want to recruit FT in London at a bank that is 'better' than your NYC BB, you need to be discreet about networking (which in your case would be phone calls given that you can't fly over to London during the summer). Nobody wants to work with someone who comes in the first day and already shows signs he/she's disinterested in NYC and the company and is giving vibes that he/she wants to move. So show a positive attitude and you will be fine. Needless to say, don't take calls in the office, given NY/LDN time difference call in the morning (EST) before work starts.
FT recruiting is much (and I mean MUCH MUCH MUCH) more doable in London than NY which is why I urge you to keep your options open for now and start in NY. London runs fairly structured FT recruiting programs at the end of the summer to the point where it's actually a 'thing' (especially at EBs but also GS/MS/JPM too) and a surprisingly large proportion of people get FT jobs through FT recruiting compared to NY (which is notorious for being an absolute bloodbath). Most if not all London FT programs are much less accelerated than in NY (where the whole process can take a week maximum) and they often start later e.g. they review applications end of August/Beginning of September for BBs/EBs (but the applications are opened earlier). Some exceptions: MS has an 'Early Bird' program for London which opens June/July and they kick off earlier I think. So what does this mean for you? Well check back on careers portals every couple of days throughout your summer in NYC to see if FT apps have opened and apply. Then, imagine you're in NYC, you've finished your summer program at around 10th August hopefully with a return offer in hand. You now have AMPLE TIME to recruit FT in London provided you have networked a little with London and given that the apps haven't even started to be reviewed yet until late August/early Sept.
You have to play a game of 2 faces. On the surface at work you show nothing but passion and excitement to be in NY (to get that return offer) but when you recruit for FT in London you have to convince them why you want to move back to London and this has to be fairly convincing given they will think "Wall Street is an amazing opportunity and even I want to be there, why does this guy want to come back?". Your answer should be very diplomatic - don't badmouth your company or the city but just say you much prefer to be 'at home' in London and you much prefer the lifestyle. This is good enough for them and don't go overboard trying to convince them.
Nothing really but I urge you to keep an open mind about NY and don't go in with preconceived notions that it is a bad place to be because a) it will show up in your behavior at work and b) it's a great city and I think you should give it a chance at least.
Hope this helps.
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