Advice: Internship Offers

Career Opportunities & Internships
1

<p>Hey everyone, I'm a CS major and am currently entertaining two offers for internships; a major network/telecom/technology company based in Silicon Valley and a major insurance company based in the midwest. I have technically already accepted the position with the insurance company as it was my only offer by the time their deadline came, but I don't think it would be considered binding, right?</p>

<p>The insurance company is paying $18/hour, but provides furnished housing. The tech company is paying $24/hour, with no housing, but instead gives a $3,000 "signing bonus" to reimburse the costs. The thing is, the position with the insurance company is in their IT department as an Applications programmer, while the technology company internship is in their "Supply Chain Organization" department in either the "Product Operations" group or the "Technology and Quality" group, both with a job title as a "Technical Engineer" (really vague). I'm working on getting more details on what I'd be doing, but in the mean time would like to get advice from others on my choice. </p>

<p>Like I mentioned, I'm a CS major and so I would prefer a software position, but the technology company is more prestigious (not to mention the location) and is a company that I would actually consider working for after graduation (I'm a junior right now). If this position ends up being outside of just pure software, should I still consider it? </p>

<p>Thanks for the help.</p>

2

<p>No one willing to share an opinion? I’ve never had an internship before, so this is all new to me. For anyone who has interned in San Jose/Silicon Valley, is the $3,000 enough to cover rent for the summer? Anyone taken an internship slightly out of their major? If it ends up being a non CS job (even though they listed CS as one of the majors they were looking for), should I still consider it?</p>

3

<p>What do you mean by technically? It’s really bad ethics to accept an offer from a company and then reject it to go to a better company. But that’s a really bad position to be in. That offer from the silicon valley company sounds really good and I’m sure you would learn a lot. If you have signed papers with the company who gave you the offer I would stay with that company. Then I would notify the silicon valley company that you would have loved the opportunity to intern with them but you had already accepted an offer well before they gave you one. This would make you look professional as well. If you have just verbally expressed interest in that insurance company then turn them down. Silicon valley and you’re major is CS? If you do that internship you’ll be helping yourself tremendously.</p>

4

<p>Well, by “technically” I mean I accepted the offer over the phone from the insurance company (didn’t sign anything), as their deadline was approaching and it was my only offer during the time. I hadn’t heard from the silicon valley company for quite a while, so I assumed they decided to go with someone else.</p>

<p>As for accepting an offer then rejecting it, is it really that bad? I mean, companies let employees go all the time, so why is it any less ethical that we as individuals exercise the same right? Like I said, this is my first time going though any type of “hiring process”, so maybe I don’t know whats ethical or not.</p>

5

<p>Well if you have already given your word then it’s best you stay with them. How much time did the silicon valley company give you to decide? </p>

<p>Companies usually do give you a notice you are being let go, unless you are fired. There is no written law that the company has to notify you that you are being let go. Nor is there a law that says you have to notify a company that you are rejecting the offer or quitting your job. It’s just a courtesy in the business world. </p>

<p>The reason I would not recommend rejecting your current offer from the insurance company and going for the silicon valley company is because you’ll be burning bridges. Never again will that company even look at your resume should you decide to apply there for a later position. This is rare but can happen, if word gets to that silicon valley company you did that then they’ll retract their offer as well…leaving you with squat. </p>

<p>In the end this is really up to you. If you think that this silicon valley company is worth it then go for it. Just know you probably won’t get any job from that insurance company if you decided to apply their at a later point in your career.</p>

6

<p>I agree that you might burn the bridges with the first place, but you have to do what’s best for you, and then live with the consequences (whatever they might be).</p>

<p>fwiw, I backed out of an internship offer from the State Department when something better came along, so my opinion is biased in that regard (and people in my industry seem less stuck up than the business world seems to be with self importance and “how dare you reject our offer” blah blah blah).</p>

7

<p>I know what your getting at with “burning bridges.” But honestly, I never really considered working for the insurance company after graduation. I don’t mean to come off as pompous, but it was the just first company I approached at the Career Fair so that I could get comfortable with the experience (it was my first Career Fair and interview ever) before I went on to talk to the technology companies. I would feel bad, but this situation can’t be a rare occurrence, can it? And why would me retracting my offer to the Insurance company to work for the Silicon Valley company make them rescind their offer to me? Is the business world really that petty? And how does that make me any worse than them?</p>

<p>Well, I have until December 14th to decide for the Silicon Valley company. If I were to take it, I would of course notify the insurance company that I had to rescind my acceptance of their offer. The position doesn’t start until May, so they would definitely have enough time to replace me. That is why I wouldn’t feel TOO bad.</p>

8

<p>This issues comes up a lot around now, and I cannot emphasize enough that you need to be smart when you accept offers. Whether you know it or not, there are ethics involved with job seeking.</p>

<p>Because nearly all work agreements are “at-will,” a company or an employee can terminate your employment at any time for any reason or for no reason at all. For this reason, you should think about a commitment to work for a company in terms of ethics. On a theoretical level, you can try the theory of universalization to point to what you should do. If everyone were to apply to jobs and accept their first offers only to retract their acceptances when they got better offers, what would happen? A likely scenario is that companies would know that this is a common practice, so they would hire extra people, assuming that they would lose a certain number before the job begins. If fewer people than they expect retract their offers, they just cut the rest. In other words, if they hire 125 people and have a target class of 100, if only 15 people retract their offers, they would need to cut 10 more to get to their target.</p>

<p>How would you feel if a company told you that - after they already extended an offer to you - you were one of the extras, and there was no spot for you? It would probably suck to have to go through the process of finding a job all over again.</p>

<p>From the employer’s perspective, let’s say you are hiring interns. You have a target class of 20, and you look at 10 schools. Each school requires you to send a team of three recruiters, including at least one young employee doing the job you are recruiting. When you factor in travel costs, opportunity costs (by employees recruiting instead of doing revenue generating work), direct costs (charges by universities to recruit on campus), etc., you are looking at a pretty heavy cost.</p>

<p>When someone accepts an offer, the wheels immediately start turning. You go through the process of setting up that person’s employment, but more importantly, since an acceptance is supposed to be an actual acceptance instead of a tentative acceptance, you tell all of the other applicants that they have not gotten the job. </p>

<p>If someone retracts their acceptance, the company loses big time - not only did they waste their time extending an offer, but they are also now in a worse position than they were before they extended offers since the next best person has already been declined. Either they need to accept that their intern class will be smaller than expected, giving a smaller pool for future offers and thus impacting the quality of future hires, OR they need to go through the time and cost of recruiting replacements.</p>

<p>You may say that companies should be prepared for this happening when they hire people, but the fact is that you are protected by the fact that retracting accepted offers is frowned upon.</p>

<p>The reason another company would rescind its offer to you if you retract your acceptance elsewhere is twofold. For one, they immediately see you as a risk - your word is no good, so how can you be trusted? And for two, they are sensitive to their reputation. Even if you are in a different industry, it is possible for recruiters to talk, and generally recruiters do not want to be seen as poachers. Because you as a recruiter don’t want other companies to steal your recruits once they accept, you make it known that you will not tolerate your recruits’ retraction of other acceptances.</p>

<p>Obviously I oppose retracting your acceptance. That said, if you decide to go ahead and retract acceptance anyway - there is a little less risk to you since you are talking about different industries - it is absolutely in your best interests to TELL the Silicon Valley company that your acceptance of their offer requires you to retract an existing offer. If they acknowledge that and do not rescind your offer, you’ll be fine in the long run.</p>

9

<p>If I were in your position, I would just stick with the original company. I’m a CS major too, and as far as I can tell, companies are more interested in what you did and contributed as opposed to where you did it. That being the case, I think the only benefit to being hired at a more prestigious company doing less interesting(from the perspective of recruiters anyway) is to tell your friends and family. I am also against the idea of accepting an offer and then taking your word back. I don’t know myself, but recruiters have told me that you’d be surprised if you knew how much they networked and so you don’t want to make a bad name for yourself. </p>

<p>Either way, congratulations on your internship!</p>