(College senior) accepting a job offer then changing mind, getting better offer later, etc

Parents Forum
1

Another thread got me thinking about this.

If a college senior accepts a job, say, in the fall, and then later decides it’s not a good fit (or something spectacular comes along in those months before graduation), how does that work?

Is this like ED where the company whose offer the student accepted blackballs if the student “rescinds”?

Does the company sue?

Is it ethically wrong to break the agreement? If so, under what conditions would it not be - family illness, higher salary offer elsewhere, realizing COL is too high in job city?

Does it matter if the window to accept the job was very short (“exploding offer”)?

Or is the situation (like summer melt) pretty normal?

I did google a bit and the legal ramifications appear to be unique to each position - in the employment contract or not.

The situation doesn’t seem all that unusual, either.

What are your thoughts on this, CC?

2

Well, I actually had something like this happen to me as a young adult. Obviously I would not advocate breaking a legally binding agreement. But I started a job as a young adult that was totally misrepresented to me. I was told I would be doing one thing and I did another. My co-workers were much less trained than I was.

I had interviewed for several jobs in the same time period and had an offer that was much more interesting, career building, and much more lucrative come in 3 weeks into my new job. I quit without notice. Yes, they were mad. Oh well. It was over 20 years ago now and I have no regrets. It was absolutely the right move for me. I’ve worked as a software engineer and honestly, it’s not super uncommon when the market is hot for job. Heck - I used to have head hunters calling me all the time with opportunities.

In terms of college recruiting if you were given an opportunity through a college’s placement office, you may hurt later graduates by flaking out. So I personally would feel obligated to stay through a year at an opportunity like that. If a student really wants to have all their options open with no obligations they should probably job hunt on their own. At a minimum, I’d sit down with an adviser in placement and ask them what they think.

3

Thanks for that @MusakParent . So you see a difference between a job found on one’s own and one found through the career placement office - I hadn’t considered that.

I was thinking more BEFORE starting the job - a current college student. Accepting an offer in senior year fall, then in winter or spring changing one’s mind.

4

Well, there is always “melt” in job offers generally, from both sides. Note that many employment arrangements are “at will”, so either party can terminate at no notice for any reason or no reason, except for an illegal reason, even after employment starts.

But most do not want to do that, because of reputational damage, though this is often more of a concern for employers (if employers do it, it usually means stuff like financial problems, plant closure, etc.).

5

Interesting. D and I have been discussing just this. Is it ethical? Not sure.

6

Ethical or moral issues aside, plenty of kids take a job and keep on looking to see if they can get a better one. And if they do, they take it. It’s an offer, not a jail sentence.

7

It is generally not ethical. And especially if the future job is in the same city, the pool of people is smaller than you think. If you stiff a hiring manager and their team who helped interview, they will remember if you end up running into them in the future. No one is likely to sue you. But you reputation for integrity (or not) can follow you.

Things happen, like health issues for the applicant or their family. There are good reasons to withdraw from an offer that employers will understand. But that you kept looking and got a better offer? That isn’t one that will be well received.

I’d say treat your future employer the way you would want to be treated.

8

If this is a situation that your child is in, see if exploding offers are against school policy (if this offer came from school recruiting). If so, sounds like the student has grounds to reopen the decision window.

I think for ethics, family health issue would be considered much differently than “got a better offer” or “realized COL is too high”.

9

There are a number of factors to consider.

Legally, unless you sign an employment agreement, your employment is likely at will. As an employee you can quit/give notice at any time.

In terms of future practical implications:

The smaller the company is, the more they will be damaged if someone they spend resources on decides not to work for them after an offer is accepted. Think of the small company that is just hiring for 1 position and they passed on a lot of other candidates to choose you after a several week/month search. They may hold a grudge.

Contrast that with a large company that is hiring a bunch of people into entry level positions that probably have a high turnover rate even among employees who start.  They most likely are hiring with a yield number in mind anyways.  As long as they receive adequate notice, I doubt they would hold it against someone for changing their minds.  In fact, it is probably better for them for you not to start and waste training resources.

The amount of notice is also important, maybe the most important factor. If you take an offer in the fall to start after graduation the following spring, and you give the company plenty of notification (a month or 2), it’s not likely to have much if any repercussions. Most business people know circumstances change and people will always try to optimize their opportunities. In fact, most employers (if they are good business people) would appreciate prospective employees being upfront and honest about a change in mind and circumstances. I would not want to start anyone who is already looking for a new job.

10

My husband made a last minute job change out of college back in the day (screwed up my grad school plans in the process). He had accepted a consulting job at one of the large firms in NYC and then had an amazing opportunity come up with a family business in the spring. He called HR and talked through it candidly and told them he would honor his commitment if it would leave them in a lurch. The HR manager told him to pursue the other opportunity and wished him well. I could see how it would have been a different conversation and decision if it was a small company. (He also gave them more than 4 months notice).

11

I wouldn’t advise any student to do this unless there are extenuating circumstances, like a family illness or something.

It doesn’t really matter how big the company is; hiring is an enormous and expensive undertaking. Losing a head before they even get started is something that will impact any team negatively; larger companies may be better able to absorb the cost, but it’s still rough. Other team members will have to absorb the work, and there’s always a chance the team will lose the head (meaning they can’t hire anyone to replace you). Now, I’m not saying that the student or job seeker should put the company’s needs ahead of their own needs, just laying it out there.

Generally speaking, once a student (or any job seeker) accepts an offer somewhere, they should stop looking for other jobs. It’s generally accepted that you’d cancel any future interviews you have once you accept an offer. If a student has an offer from Company A and is in-process at Company B, which they think they might like better, students should try to contact the Company B and see if anything can be done to see if they can get through the process faster so they have two offers to consider. Sometimes Company B can’t do that, and then the student should decide whether they want to go with the bird in the band and accept Company A’s offer or wants to proceed forward with Company B.

But what they shouldn’t do is accept Company A’s offer, then continue to interview at Company B, and take Company B’s offer and rescind Company A’s. That’s unethical. And - which may be more important to the student - it can actually result in the student being unhireable at that company (or maybe just that team) in the future. Many companies DO keep records of this kind of stuff. Does that mean you’ll be blackballed across the industry. That’s unlikely, but if the industry is very small or tightly integrated, there is the chance that people will get to talking. (For example, I work in video games, and I could easily imagine this story getting around. We’re a small, tight, and incestuous industry.)

(Having a job misrepresented to you is a completely different situation, I think. It’s different if you actually get to the job and you realize it’s very different from what’s advertised. I even think it’s different if you get to the job and you realize that you don’t like it! I’m talking about accepting an offer and then rejecting it before you even begin the job.)

The company is very unlikely to sue though. There’s usually no legal grounds for it - most employment is at-will - and it would cost more money to sue than to just let it go. However, there are situations in which that may be called for - if companies have put forward relocation expenses for students or given them a hiring bonus, for example.

Also, there are situations where this is fine. Family illness is one of those, death in the family, changed circumstances, etc. That warrants a call to the hiring manager and/or recruiter and a discussion.

Higher salary, IMO, isn’t a good reason. Neither is COL - students should be doing this kind of research as they are job hunting.

Sure, plenty of students do it - it’s not a jail sentence. But it’s not great, and it can have some ramifications for the students. So they should consider how much they really want that second offer.

12

It is not (though it could be at some point). I’m just curious.

Appreciate the responses so far.

13

Most jobs do not have a contract until you start so aren’t like ED where you sign a contract before you apply.

If there is signing bonus or payment for moving, often those are required to be repaid if the employee doesn’t work for a year. My daughter did have to sign an agreement for that.

14

Job offers are not admission offers and corporations are not colleges. Most employment is “at will”. A job offer always has a expiration date to ensure that the process doesn’t drag on. If you accept a job and change your mind about accepting it, you let the employer know. They might well be upset with you and they will likely not consider you for further employment opportunities but - that’s it. Yes, starting out you want to keep a clean reputation - actually you always want to work in a professional and ethical manner - but starting out a job you don’t want isn’t the best way to build a career.

15

Then don’t take the job to start with. And certainly the applicant would have the right to be very unhappy if the company rescinded the offer in the spring. It also occasionally happens (and is a black eye for the company if word gets around). Again… an applicant would be unhappy if the company did it to them. So the applicant should not be cavalier about doing it to the company.

16

I recently worked for a company that hired a mid-career manager after an extensive interview process. They waited 4 weeks for her to start and on the day she was supposed to start she texted her supposed boss to say she changed her mind. They were ticked. And within a week no one thought anything about it. So this manager did, in fact, ruin any chances of ever working for this company but it was the unprofessional way in which she handled the communication that put her on the no-hire list. If she had given them some notice and called or emailed to discuss the matter it really would have not been that big of a deal. Companies hire (and lose employees) on a regular basis. That doesn’t mean you should accept a job without meaning to take it and it is unprofessional to take a job and keep job hunting but if your circumstances change after you accept a job (and yes, that includes getting a better offer from previous interviews) then no one in corporate American would blame you for rescinding a job acceptance as long as you behave responsibly, politely and professionally when you do.

17

I am a college senior shopping around after a job offer myself. I have a deadline to respond to the offer I currently have from the internship I worked at last summer. I would never sign an offer and then go back on it (unless the company withheld important information, mislead/lied to me, or otherwise acted unethically). It is super frowned upon and burns bridges in an increasingly smaller world (more than 10% of my 500+ LinkedIn connections are from the internship I worked at last summer, for example). Also, you can face sanctions from the career center/service at your University if you got the job through on-campus recruiting.

18

If the first company hasn’t invested much (eg, just a few local interviews) and is imposing a short deadline while you’re awaiting another offer, it’s not a problem to rescind after accepting (before starting). The short deadline likely means they’re ready to offer the job to their number two candidate.

19

just want to say my kid is going through this too. while stressful, it’s a good thing, right!? he has a job offer with a deadline for decision in our home town. He got it extended so he can visit another location which has already bought him a plane ticket. He has two other places wanting second interviews. It’s hard to know what to do when there’s a good offer in the mix. He’s afraid of saying Yes to offer #1, and wanting to rescind it later on as it’s a good, well-known company and doesnt want to be black-listed. Vonlost - what you mentioned is basically his case; local and few interviews. Do you think it would hurt him in our town to accept, then rescind ?

20

I see nothing wrong with changing your mind on a job offer that is accepted way ahead of time. I’ve worked for companies where this has happened and have known people who have done it and it tends to blow over very quickly. A couple weeks later no one cares or remembers. Who wants an employee that would rather be somewhere else? If they are unhappy they are just going to leave anyway and I’d rather they left before I wasted time and money training them. I would recommend the kid notify the employer with as much notice as possible, something along the lines of “my circumstances have changed and I am no longer able to take your position”. No elaboration is needed.