RESCINDED FT Analyst Offer

I recently received an offer from a bank for a FT Analyst role, I accepted the offer both verbally over the phone and via email.

A few days after accepting the offer (before progressing to sign the contract), I was called in for a “meeting” with HR, where I was asked to confirm details regarding a “gap” on my resume.

Everything I had listed on my resume was 100% honest and correct (including GPA, all previous education and work experience details, even extracurricular activities and skills etc.) However, I had not included every individual item of previous work experience. I have completed multiple FO internships, all of which I had listed on my resume. However, prior to those internships I had also worked full time for several months, I had not included that FT experience on my resume for three reasons:

  1. There was not enough space to list it (unless I either went over 1 page or made the font size stupidly small)
  2. The FT experience was not very impressive (relative to the FO internships), therefore was not as relevant to be included
  3. My mentors in the industry had recommended I leave it off, furthermore the career websites I had consulted had all stated that it is fine to not include every individual previous work experience on your resume

The application form itself had not asked to list any previous work experience or previous employers, so I did not “omit” any information there. However, there was one question on the form which had asked for the total number of months of previous work experience. I had mistakenly forgot to include the several months from the FT role, therefore the number I had entered was several months off. This was an honest mistake which resulted from completing the application form in a hurry whilst very tired late at night on the day before the deadline.

I only discovered this mistake after HR pointed it out: I was subsequently informed the offer is being rescinded, on the basis that I “mislead” them with false information…

I am now extremely set back since after “accepting” the offer from this bank I subsequently withdrew from the interview process with all other firms. Am completely back to square one and face the prospect of being unemployed.

April 11th update:

I emailed the guys who interviewed me, I did get a response but unfortunately it was to say they support the decision to rescind my offer, so they are not willing to go to bat for me.

I guess there is not much else I can do apart from starting the job hunting process over again...

 

Apologies about your situation. I would go back to HR and email the people who interviewed you and question them about your situation. Whilst they can rescind the offer (hence the disclaimer of application accuracy before you submit) I would push back to HR relentlessly. HR staff mindlessly follow overly rigid criteria, if you can get someone with more authority to support you then you'd have a better chance.

Also sometimes you can reinstate withdrawn applications (if recruitment is still ongoing) by emailing HR at the other companies.

I hope you can get the offer back!

Array
 

Thanks for your suggestions, and no need to apologize, it’s not your fault! I already tried pushing back to HR, but that was no good. I will follow up by trying to send a message to the people who interviewed me.

 

"I had mistakenly forgot to include the several months from the FT role, therefore the number I had entered was several months off."

That sounds like a fucking lie to me. If you made a conscious decision to leave it off of your application, then how-the-fuck did you magically forget that it existed at another point in the same application? You're lying, OP. Own up to what you did, and move on. If you'd given the honest answer (that you didn't think that it was relevant work experience), then I wouldn't consider it a big deal, but since you doubled down by lying in your post, you deserve it, OP. Have fun in those phone screenings!

I assume that you came here to get ideas for help, so I'm not sure why you felt the need to volunteer this lying story on WSO instead of telling the truth.

 
Vinsanity:
"I had mistakenly forgot to include the several months from the FT role, therefore the number I had entered was several months off."

That sounds like a fucking lie to me. If you made a conscious decision to leave it off of your application, then how-the-fuck did you magically forget that it existed at another point in the same application? You're lying, OP. Own up to what you did, and move on. If you'd given the honest answer (that you didn't think that it was relevant work experience), then I wouldn't consider it a big deal, but since you doubled down by lying in your post, you deserve it, OP. Have fun in those phone screenings!

I assume that you came here to get ideas for help, so I'm not sure why you felt the need to volunteer this lying story on WSO instead of telling the truth.

As the size of this thread grew I guess it was only a matter of time before someone posted a reply like this. Not sure why you had to post your exact same reply TWICE (at different points in this thread), but since your post is a pretty serious accusation I will follow your example and reply to both your posts.

Actually, I never made a "conscious decision" to omit the FT role from my application. When applying online I simply attached the same old version of my resume (which I had already used for more than 50 other applications over the past few months), and as I already mentioned there was NOWHERE ON THE APPLICATION FORM where you could even enter the names or positions of any of your previous work experiences. Regarding work experience, the form simply had one entry field to enter ONE NUMBER (the total number of months of previous work experience.)

You are correct about one thing: the purpose of this post absolutely was because I wanted advice. So, thinking about this logically, if anything in my post was a lie, it would not only be of absolutely zero benefit, but actually negative benefit (because any subsequent advice which was given would therefore NOT even be applicable, I might as well just be a troll.)

However, you are free to believe what ever you want, so if you still think I was lying then that's fine too, I'm certainly not going to waste time trying to convince you otherwise.

Thank you to everyone else for your support here. As I already mentioned, the purpose of this post was to try to get advice (not to make people feel sorry for me.) Unfortunately, in the end it seems there is nothing which can be done about the situation.

 

Chill out. Quite frankly, a few months of excluded work experience is also just f***ing irrelevant. Including fake work experience is lying, but there is no requirement that you put everything you've ever done on your resume - its completely normal to prune for relevance.

 

Yes, that’s pretty much the situation. Their official reason for rescinding the offer was because on the resume I submitted during the initial application I had not included all previous work experience.

When they questioned me about it, I did declare everything in full, but by then it was "too late"

 

I am so sorry for your predicament, but this makes absolutely no sense. There a lot of associates and analysts that come in that have tons of experience that cannot be covered by a one page resume, including me.

In this case it is always ok to exclude experiences that are not relevant to the job you are hiring. But when you fill out the company's official application you need to include every job that you had (most applications allow you to add additional experiences) with a three month accuracy of start/leave date. You have to push back on HR and potentially talk to a lawyer

Just out of curiosity, what was the work experience that you left out?

 
tomsmith23:
Yes, that’s pretty much the situation. Their official reason for rescinding the offer was because on the resume I submitted during the initial application I had not included all previous work experience.

When they questioned me about it, I did declare everything in full, but by then it was "too late"

Do you mind sharing which bank it was so we can boycott?

 

I thought I was missing something, but I guess not. This is absolutely absurd and sounds like it could be a technicality used in order to hire someone else, cover up a mistake of their own (HR extending too many offers, etc.). I agree with NYSE FANG, you should contact the most senior person you spoke with detailing what happened. Any good executive would sympathize with your situation and rectify it. If not, I wouldn't even want to work there...

 

I'm 100 percent with you on this. This sounds like a cover story, and I would not go to the company myself after seeing this type of action. I think they did a favor by revealing themselves.

 

Wow... this is a shitty situation. Did you get connected with this bank through your school? If so, have you tried getting career management to help you.

I would definitely go back to HR on this. It’s one thing to add things that don’t exist, but choosing not to include prior experiences is not misleading, at least, not in this case.

I think if this is coming from HR, I would also reconnect with the team hiring you to fight for you. At the end of the day, it’s their call and not HR’s, and if you explain it the way you have here, I think it’s very understandable.

 

Thanks for your reply and suggestions. Yes, that is a good idea to talk to my school career services. However, I doubt they would take any action. The bank merely posted the information regarding the job position on the school’s career website page, the application itself was done online on the banks website, so the school was not involved in the application process.

 

Wow...that seems unfair.

I have definitely left off older internships on my Resume and never had a problem with background checks.

Something doesn't smell right here. Maybe they decided they don't want the headcount and are using this as an excuse.

 

Thanks for your reply. Yes, it certainly seems very unfair, might be difficult to find out what their "real" reason is.

I guess apart from emailing the guys that interviewed me there is not much else I can do?

 

I don't particularly care for HR but you were interviewing for a FT analyst role but you had previous full-time work experience? Was this during school? After graduation? Maybe I have not read your post closely enough but it sounds like you had FT work experience, then had internships, then you received the offer with bank?

How long have you been out of school? Are you in the U.S.?

 

Job market has been very spotty recently. Received several feedback loops from recruiters loving my background but feeling hesitant about my complicated situation where I had to move around a bit for personal issues.

I've been waitlisted, had offers pulled, given short acceptance periods, etc. These companies are turning into scared pussies as if job seekers have that much choice in roles. I don't think there's anything you can do, but push on.

The FT experience you left off sounds like something someone would use to discredit you especially if the only other experience you have had is internships. These guys want you to show a linear path and they don't typically take internship experience seriously, especially if you did FT somewhere else.

I've assumed that it's all a result of the 'millennial' label, that people ascribe to the entire generation, basically saying that we're going to do something they don't like. But, this shouldn't discourage you as there will be other roles out there and sounds like you have a pretty solid background.

 

Sucks man. I had an offer for a GA role that would've paid for my tuition rescinded. I've had a Boutique Internship rescinded due to the economy going bust. So I'm familiar with the feeling.

Maybe try to get a last minute internship? If you go to a target I would try to postpone graduation by taking a 1-hour online class & spend the fall trying to recruit for FT.

Work hard, work clean, & most of all do not give up.
 

This is a very unfortunate situation. As someone mentioned, this could be HR being unreasonable in how they apply policy. HR saying you "misled" them is in fact a very misleading interpretation of what you did. See if you can get in touch with the people who actually interviewed you, as them or their management may be able to show HR some good old fashioned common sense.

Resumes often do not include everything because condensing your professional life onto one 8 1/2 x 11 inch piece of paper can be tricky. One would think HR would be able to apply the "whole person concept" and not let a minor error cloud the bigger picture here.

 
Best Response

That's really shady that they pulled an offer for that. I question if that's the real reason. I have an unconventional background and switched from engineering to finance, so my resume leaves off old jobs that aren't applicable, internships and even a school that I started off at. That info isn't irrelevant to my current career, so it would just make my resume longer for no benefit to anyone. Your resume should be factual, but the main purpose is tell a story. I've have quite a few jobs since I switched to finance and have never had any issues.

Side note, stories like this are why when I switch jobs I always wait to give my notice until everything is gone through and cleared. I've had companies tell me that it's overkill, but you never know what random thing someone will have an issue with and the the full risk is on the applicant.

 

Absolutely 100%. Make sure EVERYTHING is cleared - offer signed, background check, HR, whatever else that can impact the offer - before the resignation.

It’s good to figure out the required minimum time to give notice (typically 2 weeks, or more for courtesy reasons or current team is short-staffed and you want to maintain relationships). And add in a buffer for time when the new firm inquires for their process.

 

I agree. This minor immaterial discrepancy should not be grounds for rescinding an offer. I’m willing to bet they’re using this as cover for the fact they’re going through a re-org which banks have been doing often over the last 5 years or they simply no longer have the need for the position. Instead of being upfront with you, they’re trying to save face by saying your resume is “misleading.” Fuck’em.

 
tomsmith23:
UPDATE ON SITUATION: I emailed the guys who interviewed me, I did get a response but unfortunately it was to say they support the decision to rescind my offer, so they are not willing to go to bat for me.

I guess there is not much else I can do apart from starting the job hunting process over again…

Good luck. I guess it's a lesson to all of us to not leave off any FT experiences on Resumes or at least make it clear at some point during the process.

 

Thanks for your support. I’m pretty depressed about this right now to be honest, it took approx. 6 months of hard work to secure this position, now I’m going to have to start all over again.

 

Keep it up, man. You got it once, so you won't have an issue getting another offer again. It's a shame what happened but no benefit in becoming depressed. Just suck it up and keep moving.

"Drill, Baby, Drill" - Sarah Palin
 

OP - sorry to hear that the hiring team didn’t back you up... that really sucks.

You mentioned that some of your mentors in the industry had also suggested leaving it (irrelevant role) out. Have you gone back to provide them a follow up? Maybe they’ve since heard of some opportunities at their firms (or others) and can make more introductions for you. If I were them I would at least take a quick look to see if there’s anything I can do for you given the shitty situation, and you putting a lot of work in for it.

 

Fk those guys, OP...it's never fun to go back to the drawing board when something falls through, but you may be dodging a bullet. It says something about the firm's culture to either a) actually have this be a reason to rescind an offer, or b) cover up a mistake on their end with some BS excuse rather than being honest about it. Either way, good luck! Remember, you had an offer in-hand, that means you can land another...keep at it.

 

There has to be something else driving their decision to rescind as this doesn't sound right to me. I've had so many different jobs that i would need a five page resume to do them all justice. I never list them all just the relevant ones for the job I am applying to and they always ask, I explain and all is well. I always make sure to include ALL work history in the application though as that can get a little tricky if you don't. One time I forgot about something from ages ago and when they asked I shrugged and said I forgot all about it and they were fine with it. Almost looks to me like they were fishing for a BS reason to go after you so maybe ask around some more if anyone knows what the hell is going on. Good luck.

"I'm talking about liquid. Rich enough to have your own jet. Rich enough not to waste time. Fifty, a hundred million dollars, buddy. A player. Or nothing. " -GG
 

Hey man,

I’m sorry this happened to you. I’m going to be in the minority here though, as I can get where the company is coming from.

I am not doubting your sincerity and can see how it was an honest mistake. But there are A LOT of ways to interpret leaving your first full time role off of your list of prior experience, and most of them are bad. HR’s job is to protect their company, and without them knowing you on a personal level, there is a good chance they are going to assume the worst.

Several years ago I filled out one of those applications that required me to list my last 10 years of work. I only went back about 8 years though, as everything before that was college aged part time restaurant work. An HR rep called me and asked about that gap, and I explained this. He told me he understood why I didn’t put it, but I still had to fill it out. It was ridiculous, I’ll agree, but it’s something that HR departments take seriously.

The only thing I can think of is seeing if you can obtain a referral letter from that first job and reaching out once more to the company that rescinded your offer, explain that you understand how the omission could be interpreted in different ways, and you want to show that you left in good standing, and the omission wasn’t due to anything nefarious.

Best of luck with whatever you decide to do, and wherever you end up. If nothing else, own your mistake and take it as a lesson learned.

 

I’ve hired a lot of people (unrelated industry) and I have a difficult time imagining a scenario where I like someone enough to hire him/her and would then ‘support HR’ over a thing like this and pull the offer.

But I’ve always been a substance over form guy and that could be my downfall.

 

>The only thing I can think of is seeing if you can obtain a referral letter from that first job and reaching out once more to the company that rescinded your offer, explain that you understand how the omission could be interpreted in different ways, and you want to show that you left in good standing, and the omission wasn't due to anything nefarious.

This is actually good advice.

Worst Case Scenario - '''they''' put you back in their process.

Best Case Scenario - you have perfect cover for your hand-delivery of Zyklon.

 

Hi -

I can understand how you feel, and it is a mistake that a lot of people would make. You were focused on relevant skills. But, the HR Department in this case is more focused on your character. For this reason, they may want to do background checks to make sure you were not fired or asked to resign from any job for reasons related to fraud, dishonesty, or theft. That could even be from jobs you held for a short period that are unrelated to this industry. A similar review would be undertaken by FINRA, with a fingerprint check, and could lead to being denied a registration.

Remember, this is a disclosure-based industry. In the future, if you don't want to disclose that you washed dishes for a short while, at least put an asterik explaining that you will provide additional information about unrelated employment on request. You can't, however, do that on any FINRA forms. When I applied for the Bar, I was 28. They required me to disclose all of my full and part time jobs from the age of 16.

This is a setback for you, but things may work out for the best. Good luck!

As an aside, I once represented a senior executive at an IB who (out of embarrassment) did not disclose to FINRA that he had been arrested at the age of 16 for having sex on a beach with his girlfriend. FINRA learned of it and wanted to revoke his registration. I felt sorry for the guy, who was at one time on the phone with a half-dozen or more people trying to resolve the problem.

 

That is a good point. My involvement was limited to one conference call. I don't believe that he had come up through the ranks and previously was registered. He may have had to become registered because he changed his responsibilities, or he had come on board from another industry (perhaps due to an acquisition by a commercial bank). I also had a classmate in law school that did not disclose his arrest for marijuana possession in high school. The arrest was not a big deal, but failing to disclose it to the Bar created lots of problems.

By the way, the reason I responded to this post is that I have had the same discussion with my son, and I felt that many of the other posts may have been off track. I practice in this industry and people very commonly wrestle with the issue of whether something needs to be disclosed to FINRA, or in other contexts.

 

"I had mistakenly forgot to include the several months from the FT role, therefore the number I had entered was several months off."

That sounds like a fucking lie to me. If you made a conscious decision to omit it from your application at one point, then how-the-fuck did you magically forget that it existed at another point in the same application? You're fucking lying, OP. Own up to what you did, and move on. You lied in your application to make yourself look good, and you're lying here to do the same thing.

If you'd told the truth (possibly that you didn't consider it to be relevant work experience), then maybe I wouldn't consider it to be a big deal, and what happened to you would be messed up, but since you chose to double down on the lie, you deserve this, OP. Enjoy those phone screenings!

I assume that you posted because you wanted advice, so I'm not sure why you chose to volunteer information with a lie in it instead of telling the truth.

 
Vinsanity:
"I had mistakenly forgot to include the several months from the FT role, therefore the number I had entered was several months off."

That sounds like a fucking lie to me. If you made a conscious decision to omit it from your application at one point, then how-the-fuck did you magically forget that it existed at another point in the same application? You're fucking lying, OP. Own up to what you did, and move on. You lied in your application to make yourself look good, and you're lying here to do the same thing.

If you'd told the truth (possibly that you didn't consider it to be relevant work experience), then maybe I wouldn't consider it to be a big deal, and what happened to you would be messed up, but since you chose to double down on the lie, you deserve this, OP. Enjoy those phone screenings!

I assume that you posted because you wanted advice, so I'm not sure why you chose to volunteer information with a lie in it instead of telling the truth.

As the size of this thread grew I guess it was only a matter of time before someone posted a reply like this. Not sure why you had to post your exact same reply TWICE (at different points in this thread), but since your post is a pretty serious accusation I will follow your example and reply to both your posts.

Actually, I never made a "conscious decision" to omit the FT role from my application. When applying online I simply attached the same old version of my resume (which I had already used for more than 50 other applications over the past few months), and as I already mentioned there was NOWHERE ON THE APPLICATION FORM where you could even enter the names or positions of any of your previous work experiences. Regarding work experience, the form simply had one entry field to enter ONE NUMBER (the total number of months of previous work experience.)

You are correct about one thing: the purpose of this post absolutely was because I wanted advice. So, thinking about this logically, if anything in my post was a lie, it would not only be of absolutely zero benefit, but actually negative benefit (because any subsequent advice which was given would therefore NOT even be applicable, I might as well just be a troll.)

However, you are free to believe what ever you want, so if you still think I was lying then that's fine too, I'm certainly not going to waste time trying to convince you otherwise.

Thank you to everyone else for your support here. As I already mentioned, the purpose of this post was to try to get advice (not to make people feel sorry for me.) Unfortunately, in the end it seems there is nothing which can be done about the situation.

 

It happens, I won't name which bank but heard it happening more than once at one of the following: MS, ML, GS . This is nothing weird and there is almost zero you can do about it.

Anything that's weird will get you dinged, the people who made you the offer don't care enough about you at this stage, and to be frank they have almost no influence in getting you hired over HR.

I know it sounds ridiculous, but that's the way the big banks work. It's awful and you probably feel like shit, but the best thing you can do is moving on. Stop stressing about it and get another job. Whoever is insulting you in this thread can go fuck themselves, what a fucking disgusting human being.

 

Probably has to do with the GS issue a year or two ago with onboarding. Does anyone remember what that was? Something like the ASsociates of 2nd Year analysts were giving the 1st years all the answers to some important test?

 

I really feel for you OP. Being on the job hunt myself and knowing a lot of people also looking, the behavior of agency recruiters, internal recruiters and hiring managers/in business interviewers is nothing short of atrocious. Companies nowadays are just a black hole, closed door interviews where they can treat you however they please, mediocre talent sanctimoniously interviewing and making decisions and this ridiculous belief that they owe you no explanation.

I read on another forum of a guy who was 100% upfront and truthful about everything on his application - according to him not a thing left off or embellished. He interviewed, was given and signed an offer, resigned from his current employer and began his relocation process. Then all of a sudden he gets a notice from the company saying they have rescinded the offer due to failure of the background check. No matter how much he has tried, neither the employer or the background check company will say anything about why he failed the background check, they just simply don't respond to him. For whatever reason they decided to rescind the offer and came up with some baloney that he failed the background check.

I have been thinking for some time that there needs to be an avenue for candidates to stand up to all the crap that companies pull. Glassdoor could have been good but it's just a shill for employers to advertise. A site that has no qualms in allowing posters to name and shame not just companies but specific people is more than welcome and overdue. It's such a shame that the corporates have turned into this but the only way to get the rats to behave is to publicly out them.

 

How is it that you had a full time job prior to multiple FO internships?

I don't think it's a big deal but I do think the bank is in the right here, especially if everyone who interviewed you supports the decision unanimously.

We just wrapped up internship hiring and given the investment we need to make, character and integrity is incredibly important, moreso than experience or even intellect.

If I found out someone we hired had told a story of interning in FO positions and always being interested in x role, but later I find out they started off in the back office full-time, that would be a pretty big issue. Or maybe you told them how you took a few months off to help the world before going into FO internships. Also a major issue.

Plus, almost every first round interview asks how you how you decided on your first job, so omitting that entire story and backdrop is a big deal. It's very hard to believe you forgot your first full-time role before taking on a bunch of internships. Just seems shady to be honest.

Furthermore, there's likely something else missing from the story. Not saying this happened but if they contacted your FT role and found out you were fired for cause, that should be a 100% rescind decision.

No one knows the full story but I thought I'd give a different perspective as most posters here are coming from the perspective of a college student/entry-level applicant.

 
SanityCheck:
How is it that you had a full time job prior to multiple FO internships?

I don't think it's a big deal but I do think the bank is in the right here, especially if everyone who interviewed you supports the decision unanimously.

We just wrapped up internship hiring and given the investment we need to make, character and integrity is incredibly important, moreso than experience or even intellect.

If I found out someone we hired had told a story of interning in FO positions and always being interested in x role, but later I find out they started off in the back office full-time, that would be a pretty big issue. Or maybe you told them how you took a few months off to help the world before going into FO internships. Also a major issue.

Plus, almost every first round interview asks how you how you decided on your first job, so omitting that entire story and backdrop is a big deal. It's very hard to believe you forgot your first full-time role before taking on a bunch of internships. Just seems shady to be honest.

Furthermore, there's likely something else missing from the story. Not saying this happened but if they contacted your FT role and found out you were fired for cause, that should be a 100% rescind decision.

No one knows the full story but I thought I'd give a different perspective as most posters here are coming from the perspective of a college student/entry-level applicant.

It's a two way street. Do tell, if a candidate asked you questions about your work, your company, your career, do you give them the warts and all answer or are you selective in what you reveal just giving them the highlight reel??

The OP got the job off the back of his internships, that's what it sounds like he focused on with his CV and his career story. If he happened to work other full jobs then so be it but it's the internships that got him the interview and then the job. It doesn't sound like he in no way misrepresented the internships.

Really it's a bank - their closet is full of skeletons of bad ethics and law breaking - remember for a bank a legal fine is a just a cost of doing business, neither a deterrent nor a lesson to be learned. Pot calling the kettle black!

While I agree that not mentioning all his jobs he had was wrong given he is entry level. The real problem here is the serious power imbalance between the all mighty interviewer and the pleb candidate. Couple that with the changing face of the interview process and the way companies control the competitiveness for interviews, companies now feel they have this divine right right to skin candidates like a cat while making them bear their souls. Heck this whole talk of CV fabrication is a byproduct of the demands companies place on candidates, their manufactured competition for jobs, their use of ATS, their use of unqualified agency and inhouse recruiters who can only keyword match for the low hanging fruit etc. Candidates are just responding to this and fabricating CVs just to get through the CV screening gatekeepers. Not saying it's right but it's the simple reality of recruiting nowadays. Talent shortage - Really!!!

And you can't take seriously any claim from the employer that all interviewers unanimously support the decision. They're company men. Their job is to protect their salary. Their jobs is to look good in front of their bosses. Their job is to tow the company line. Their job is never to stick their neck out. Their job is never to stand up for wrongdoings. Their job is never to put their skin into the game. Take it off the table and, except for a few pious finger pointing ivory tower types or purely malicious evil types, I guarantee very few of them will actually agree with this decision. The unanimous agreement with the decision is most likely a pure fabrication by a lazy HR person just to get the OP to buzz of. Did they really canvas all interviewers and poll what they should do in this case? Well lets say in the off chance they did canvas all opinions, it's more than likely the interviewers didn't have the balls to stand up and say what they really believe. And this is in itself an important lesson for us all - what people feel is right is actually different to what they would do, particularly so in a corporate setting.

I'm reading and hearing more and more stories like these and have no reason to doubt the OP. The behavior of corporates nowadays is getting beyond ridiculous.

 

Right so both employers and applicants can suck, so what?

You are actually wrong, it's not a two way street. The employer isn't asking the applicant to come work for the company.

That happens later, in which case you need to do your diligence and talk to as many people as possible and if so you desire, turn down the offer.

At the stage presented by the OP, you're the one asking the employer to hire YOU and pay YOU.

And no, HR doesn't make any real decisions. They're the real "company men" as you describe. I was hired during a hiring freeze, it sure as hell wasn't HR that decided to make an exception for me. The interviewers (MDs, VPs, etc.) were the ones who decided the infraction was significant enough to rescind the offer. If you worked for 1 day on Wall Street you'd know this.

The OP f'd up, learn something and move on. If you changed your attitude you probably wouldn't have so many problems recruiting right now.

 
SanityCheck:
How is it that you had a full time job prior to multiple FO internships?

Not everybody follows the cookie cutter template of immediately starting undergraduate degree after HS, then starting FT FO role immediately after finishing undergraduate degree.

Some kids work between finishing HS and starting undergraduate. Some kids work between finishing undergrad studies and starting Masters degrees. I have even known kids who take time out to gain work experience in the middle of undergraduate degrees.

SanityCheck:
Furthermore, there's likely something else missing from the story. Not saying this happened but if they contacted your FT role and found out you were fired for cause, that should be a 100% rescind decision.

Actually, there is nothing else of importance which is missing from my "story." I was never fired for cause, I resigned voluntarily.

To be honest, given how outrageously the bank has acted, I can kind of understand why some people (including yourself) might doubt whether I am telling the whole story. After reading some other threads on WSO, there have certainly been instances when people have posted stories which seem hard to believe.

However, my "story" is genuine. As I already mentioned in another reply, you are free to believe what ever you want, so if you still think I was lying then that's fine too.

At the end of the day, the whole purpose of this thread was to ask for advice, so I have absolutely nothing to gain from lying here.

 
tomsmith23] [quote=SanityCheck:

At the end of the day, the whole purpose of this thread was to ask for advice, so I have absolutely nothing to gain from lying here.

I'm taking your story at face value. Why? Because I have heard enough of these horror stories to know yours isn't an unusual case. It's becoming more and more common.

As to advice - I suggest you chalk it up as a business deal gone bad where you haven't yet signed a formal contract. Verbal or email can constitute a legal contract but the onus is on you to prove it which gets difficult particularly for verbal agreements. Until a deal is signed in contract don't walk away from other negotiations, don't submit resignations, don't make any moves that jeoparises your opportunities elsewhere.

My suggestion here is to just forget it and walk away. Focus on other employers, other roles and your networks. Also go back to those companies you halted the process with and explain exactly the circumstances you described. Some might appreciate your honesty, some might revel in benefiting from their competitor's stupidity, some might simply just not care that your CV doesn't list every detail of your life history. Either way you have nothing to loose here except that they might agree with this case and blacklist you but that's a risk you need to take. But you can gauge this by hearing and seeing their tone when you reach out them.

Secondly, and a point for next time. Feel free to continue with your current CV if you feel that's necessary to get you an interview, assuming your full time role isn't something like pyramid selling for a drug cartel. But when it comes to interviews and verbalising your experience be sure to quickly point out that you had a full time role that's not listed on your CV and let them take the lead in whether they want you to expand on it.

Finally, and like I said above, use this as a life lesson on the psychology of humans, the importance of understanding the norms of your target market and the importance of how this varies given the forum. It's great to post here and get our moral support but what really matters is jumping through the hoops in a manner that's consistent with the expected norms of a banking interview.

Hope that helps, really you just need to walk away from this bank and work out your options with other banks

 

I totally understand not having a cookie cutter template. In fact, I prefer candidates from scrappy unusual backgrounds.

That's why it's so IMPORTANT that you tell your entire story. Obviously you didn't tell this story during your interviews or else you would've "remembered" your first full-time position and been able to proactively correct this mistake.

Of course the story actually happened, that's not the lie. You definitely had an offer and had it rescinded. The gain from telling the story the way you did is obvious too, not that I'm accusing you of anything.

Your gain is having 20+ posts sympathize with you and give you real advice, which you received and followed. Versus the other route of everyone bashing you for deliberately leaving off a full-time position from your resume and not mentioning it at all during the commonly long and probing "Tell me about your previous jobs and how you decided on them" questions.

Anyways I don't care enough to argue, just a lesson for anyone reading that even if a previous full-time position (I don't care about internships) doesn't fit on your resume, make sure to mention it during your interviews and at least list it on an employer's application.

 

My two cents - try to go for coffee with some of your interviewers. Make sure you mention that you understand that working at that bank is not a possibility, but would appreciate some feedback and advice.

They will be more candid in person and tell you what really happened there.

My impression is that either they have a headcount issue and they are using this as an excuse, or more likely the fact that you omit something resuls in a red flag with compliance and then if you have a compliance issue in the future it becomes a liability for the bank to hire someone with a red flag in the first place. No manager will go against compliance for an ANL.

If you connected with an ASO/VP at a personal level, they may be able to talk to their friends at other banks.

 

OP

I want to add that in my view there is a difference between what you put on your resume and CV, versus an HR form that asks for names, addresses and phone numbers of prior employers (and if you don't know how much detail HR wants, you can ask). Or, if the question is put to you directly in an interview. This is not a big deal and I hope that you will have a successful career. In fact, the incident may help you in the long run.

 

The only way I would understand HR and the team backing them is if they look at this like you lied about this being your first job or something. There is a huge difference in a kid taking a gap year between HS/College and one who neither good nor bad but if you are one or the other you should probably be able to determine it on your resume. If you took time off school to work and didn't mention it I am sure it is just a red flag for HR and the team.

 

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