<p>I am recent graduate looking for employment. I have been applying to jobs and currently have an offer from a company I am not so crazy about. At the same time I completed my final interview with a company that I love and always wanted to work for but they told me that it would take a month for them to get back to me with an offer and I am a very strong candidate.
So what I was going to do is accept the "not so crazy about" offer, work there for couple of weeks and leave if I got the other job I always wanted. Can I do this? Is it illegal to do this? Also will this look bad on me??</p>
<p>It is not illegal for you to leave after few weeks because it is employment at will. But yes, it will look bad on you. I would do everything you could to delay company A, and get company B hurry up with their offer. Let company B know that you have an offer and ask them if they could make a decision earlier rather than later. It is strange company B should take so long to make a decision.</p>
<p>P.S: both jobs are non-contractual :)</p>
<p>illegal? no
look bad? yes</p>
<p>does it means you shouldn’t do it if it looks bad? no</p>
<p>I’d accept offer A immediately, so that they don’t pick someone else. This is the most important step.</p>
<p>Then, I pressure company B. Don’t tell company B that you already accepted A, just tell them that you’ve received an offer from A, and need to hear back from B as soon as possible. If B truly wants you, they’ll speed up the offer. </p>
<p>If you later have to reject company A, it’s not that big of a deal. But don’t reject A until you are 100% certain that B will bring you on.</p>
<p>I know lots of cases for friends (and once in my life), where a company made a job offer, and then later had to withdraw the offer.
-We want you to start Monday the 15th.
-Received email on Friday the 12th: We can’t have you start til Monday the 22nd (which meant a week less of income that I desperately needed)
-Received an email on Friday the 19th: We don’t have the money to bring you on.</p>
<p>Similar things have happened to friends in many cases.</p>
<p>I gotta disagree with Cobra about accepting offer A. Explain the situation, that you want to ensure that you see all of your options before deciding, and ask for more time to decide. Nobody wants to spend thousands of dollars bringing someone on for them just to leave after a week, so it’s kind of in their best interests to let you have time to decide. That said, if they put your foot to the fire, accept the offer and see what happens with the other job.</p>