Reneging on an offer and signing for a rival? Right move?

Is this a douche move?

Both shops are good.

For comparison's sake (I'll change the jobs a bit so as not to be obvious in terms of my identity):

One is Global Capital Markets at an established BB (initially my first choice) and the other is Advisory/M&A at a boutiqe bank which has been doing very well for the past 2 years.

Now the dilemna is that the BB took a long time to finalize their decision (didnt say yes or no) and I panicked and once I got the advisory gig I was only given over a week or so and in the end I had no choice but to accept it or let it go (they were fairly clear about it.) The boutique did sort of wine and dine me an actually have been pursuing me and doing a lot to get me on the team. (tbh I felt very flattered.) But now barely a couple of days after I gave my confirmation the BB has come up with an offer. It is very well established and has a great track record in exit opps. (Goal is B-school in 2 years and then PE) And while the deals the boutique has been doing are great and definitely a couple of them are eye popping, for the BB these are routine things. So its def a safer bet in terms of being guaranteed spots in interesting projects.

What would you monkeys suggest.

Renege on the boutique offer and sign with the BB. What are the repurcussions. Do higher ups talk about this to each other that in the future this may come back to haunt me?

I also feel very bad from an ethical standpoint that not only am I reneging on an offer but I am doing this to a great team and esp one of the senior guys who has been great to me at all times and has gone above and beyond to ensure that I sign for the team. (tbh I didnt really understand the fact that after the offer THEY are pursuing me. Theres a lot of things which I would say make me little more than a good candidate.) To top it off the opportunity to interview at the group was through networking and the guy who was my contact point may end up getting pissed off at me too that he put his reputation on the line to stick his neck out for me to get an interview.

I have talked to a few people about it. One thing which sort of stood out was what a mentor of mine (was in IB till Associate level till he decided one day that he is done with this and moved totally out of finance) said when I told him this dilemna. He said these IB's are cut throat and when they make decisions to fire people they dont give a rats ass about emotions of the people concerned and thus we (employees) are under no obligation for this either. He said accept it and even start it as the BB start date is not yet told and could be as late as november. And when the BB confirmation is done just resign and leave. Anyone agree with this.

(Sorry it maybe a rambling post and some of it might not make sense because I tried to mantain my anonymity due to paranoia I have that someone relevant might read this)

 

Yeah, that doesn't mean shit. Here's the thing, in the end you have to go where you want to and the boutique doesn't want someone who doesn't actually want to be there. Think it over this weekend, but whatever you do, by Monday be ready to live with the consequences of whatever you decide. Paralysis of analysis is not a quality most banks look for in any candidate.

 
Best Response

Could be risky. GCM and advisory are very different jobs - assuming you are talking about IB vs. IB since you said you changed job description, and unlikely boutique is doing a ton of capital markets stuff.

A couple of things: 1) This will depend on how risk averse you are. Firstly, the "bump" may not be huge (you know this, we don't) and if not massive, it may not be worth the risk of something backfiring (plenty of stories floating around of people doing what you are suggesting and ending up losing both offers). 2) Secondly, if you really are talking about IB and a BB and it isn't a group specific offer, there is an added risk in jumping in that you may not get the group you want - if you're in a coverage group, you also don't know what kind of work you will get staffed on; be careful assuming it will be easy for you to get on the projects you alluded to in your post. 3) Random thought about your post but why b-school after 2 years and then PE? Do you mean the other way around? Granted, I don't know tons about PE recruiting as I am not interested in it, but everything on WSO points to it being extremely difficult to get PE post-MBA without pre-MBA PE experience. 4) Finally, if you really do have a capital markets type offer at a BB (exception to this statement is if you're talking about lev fin) vs. advisory at a top boutique, and you want to do PE, it would be silly to take capital markets over M&A advisory.

 

1) I think exit opps will def be greater. Would any future employer really care if Id worked at a BB vs a boutique? I think yes honestly. 2) Def true. The general consensus is that you get more exposure end to end at smaller shops. One thing to be taken into consideration is that there is no guarantee that they will be able to pull the same kind of deal flow they have over the past 2 year. Another thing to take into account is that some of the senior guys have been poached by other BBs or have exited onto other stuff so again remans to be seen whether they can be involved in same kind of projects. Btw this is not an elite boutique by any means so I am sure that the senior management plays a much bigger and important role in bringing in clients. 3) Seems like I need to do proper research. I was under the impression that it you can do PE recruiting after a top MBA. I want to do MBA in 2-3 years. Btw already have one year experience in energy IBD. Had to leave due to some extenuating circumstances. 4. Its not a top boutique. But has been getting good rep in past 2-3 years. Def an upcoming but a change in team might change the scenario 5). full time. see above

 

Your points make accepting the BB offer more compelling than I would have said based on the previous info. Guess it comes down to how well you know the guys at the boutique who went to bat for you and how important those relationships are to you - sounds like you risk burning those bridges pretty significantly.

 

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