On the flip side, I have seen employers rescind extended/accepted offers or let people go after a couple of weeks due to “financial” reasons. While it is unprofessional or unethical to change your mind after you have accepted a job offer, do what is right for you and/or your family. As other posters pointed out, some hiring managers may blow this out of proportion for a couple of weeks, but no one remembers or has the time to sue a college grad. The best approach would be to politely communicate your situation to current employer and negotiate a smooth exit.
I agree, it would be quickly forgotten.
I don’t think it is nice to back out of an offer, but at the same time, companies don’t think twice if they need to cut headcount or renege on their offer.
I remember a time when some large law firms told their newly hired associates that they couldn’t honor their offers due to economic down turn. This also happened to my nephew recently…He took a summer internship offer he was not too keen on. Later he was offered an internship that was better suited for him. Despite his father’s encouragement, he didn’t think it would be right to decline the first offer. Few weeks before he was to start the internship the first company reneged on the offer due to lack of funding. My nephew had to scramble to get another summer job.
I know of someone who was recently let go due to his company re-org. He was only there for 2 months before they decided to let him go. When they hired this person they told him he had start his job right away. He had less than few weeks to move his family from TX to CT. He was let go because they decided not to move ahead with his project (Really?!). This company had 40K+ employees. It wouldn’t have been that difficult for them to find him another position if they wanted to. The company wouldn’t help this person with his rental lease or moving expenses.
I listed all of those examples to say you need to look after yourself. I have seen so many companies not doing the right thing, therefore it is hard for me to tell new graduates to live up to their commitments.
There is a thread about whether a senior should accept a job with an insurance company. I don’t see any reason why she shouldn’t continue to look for another job even after she has accepted the offer.
Mine went through the same thing and it’s one of those good/bad things. The good is having a reasonable offer in hand before graduation and the bad is wondering if there is something better out there if you spend a few more months looking. We advised him to accept the offer and keep looking. I have also known someone in my past who joined the company only to be laid off 60 days later. I worry “less” these days what any company thinks than say thirty years ago.
From an employers perspective:
Here are the reasons why we are gracious, don’t get mad, and don’t blacklist when a new grad reneges on an accepted offer:
1- Kid finds out they’ve won a Rhodes, Marshall, other fellowship. We generally wish them well and keep in touch; this is definitely someone we want to hire down the road when their Fulbright/Master’s degree is finished. Sometimes we send a fruit basket. The timing of the fellowships is funky, big companies know that, nobody would get angry with a young grad who is clearly destined for great things. And we often keep the offer open, i.e. “let us know when you want to restart the discussion”.
2- Kid discovers a medical/health issue (either for him/herself or a family member). Again- the message is usually “thanks for letting us know and please stay in touch if your situation changes down the road”.
3- Kid gets a once in a lifetime professional experience- makes it onto the Olympic fencing team, gets cast in the London production of a major play, gets in to med school (that isn’t once in a lifetime, but we understand that a student can apply to med school AND hedge his/her bets by applying for jobs next year since med school applications are so unpredictable.)
Here are the reasons we get irritated, and usually put something into the global recruiting database which essentially says “don’t hire” or “proceed with caution” (we don’t black list but we do track offers, and if you’ve interviewed with us on campus and are now 40 years old, we WILL check the database to see our past history with you)
1- You call your recruiter and say “I’ve changed my mind” with no context or explanation. This almost always happens with a candidate who tells everyone he/she interviews with “Working here has been my dream for the last four years”, or with a candidate who needed extra handholding during the process (things like needing the sign-on bonus expedited so he/she could go to Thailand after graduating and before starting).
2- You ask your recruiter to try and get you a start date in March 2019, the recruiter scrambles to make that happen, and then in December 2018 you send an email which says “sorry, not showing up”.
3- You get an offer to start in NY. You then ask to switch to Seattle so you can join your SO. That request gets granted. You then ask to switch to SF, since your SO is getting transferred. That means another round of interviews since the SF operation is in a different division and requires different skills so the hiring leads need to make sure you are qualified. Then once you get an offer letter for SF, you accept. Two months later- you renege. And it is clear that you only needed the SF offer letter so you could play one company against a competitor.
No company once someone working their who doesn’t want to be there. But don’t be a jerk about it. And don’t be the jerk who spent three times more than any other candidate on travel and meals, accepts an offer, and then reneges.
Is that peculiar to a specific career (STEM, non-STEM)? Just wondering.
While @blossom nails it, it’s really about integrity and decency.
These are character traits that a college senior should have by now. We all know that not everybody does. Continuing to interview for jobs after you’ve accepted a job offer is simply dishonest. You’ve agreed to the terms of the offer. Your word is your bond. Unless it isn’t, sigh.
Tell the relevant companies that you expect to make a decision on your offers on such and such a date. Most companies will extend your offer, and mine won’t make the offer until just before that date (exploding, but at your signal).
Candor is best.
Many students receive employment offers in late September or early October for a position that starts in early July–a full 9 months away.
During that time circumstances can change with respect to the employer’s needs. For example, introduction of trade tariffs with another country that results in a drastic reduction in sales. A firm may lose a major client. Company decides to “go in another direction” and the student’s skill set doesn’t match. The economy enters into a recession. Some companies are not large enough to absorb unneeded employees/trainees.
I know of a current ongoing practice of a Fortune 100 company that is hiring significant numbers of employees nationwide even though the entire division is undergoing massive planned changes that will result in large number of job eliminations,layoffs and severance offers. Thousands of current & future employees will be affected.
My point is that this is a two way street; sometimes prospective employees’ situations change, and sometimes future employer’s needs change. With the prevalence of “at will” employment, I think that the better question is how does one continue to interview in an ethical manner after having accepted a job offer with a start date 9 months away ?
Or how does one continue to date other people in an ethical manner after getting engaged when the wedding isn’t for another 9 months?
Personal relationships at the engagement stage typically involve daily contact between the parties, not so with employment offers.
After you’ve given your word, there is no ethical way to continue to pursue other options in either engagement or employment offers.
There is an ethical way–simply inform the parties involved of the situation.
So you accept an offer and let the company know that you will continue to interview. I hadn’t thought of that.
Or let your fiancee know that you will continue to see of you can do better.
That might have been the case when jobs were until death do us part. Employers face no repercussions for and have no ethical qualms about reneging on offers or laying people off soon after hiring. The flip side of that is that they are entitled to no expectation that a potential employee will be loyal to them.
@ClassicRockerDad: This has nothing to do with a personal relationship that has advanced to the engagement phase. I have already explained my thoughts in above posts. (Presumably a long term relationship that has evolved & includes daily contact = personal relationship in engagement phase.)
If you think that personal relationships are the same as an employment relationship, then I encourage you to research “at will employment”.
P.S. Although a “no compete agreement” might apply to both situations. 
Unfortunately, employment offers do get rescinded for business reasons just as “hiring freezes” can affect accepted offers of employment in an at will jurisdiction.
Nobody is saying that you can’t leave a job.
Accepting a job is giving your word that you are accepting the position of employment at the start date and salary that you’ve agree to and are no longer on the job market.
Continuing to interview and pursue offers before you’ve even fulfilled what you’ve already agreed to is pure bad faith and goes against your word. It’s simply dishonest.
It is not dishonest if all parties are informed.
Nevertheless, I have no position on this topic, just curious to read others’ thoughts.
When do you inform all parties? Before or after you’ve accepted their offer?
Most people are ALWAYS on the job market. Most Americans are at will employees.
We had law clerks with offers in 2007-2008. The law firms honored those offers, but many of those new associates didn’t make it 2-3 years because there just wasn’t enough work. It wasn’t he same
My daughter accepted the first job she was offered (interviewed on a Friday, accepted on Monday). It was March, to start in May. She did receive a few calls after that from other employers, but she didn’t accept any interviews. She then switched her start date to July. Her boyfriend took an offer in May to start in August. Then his current employer begged him to stay, offering a month in Austria and offering that my daughter could go along. There was a lot of back and forth, and finally D just said “I’m going to work in July, do what you want.” Boyfriend quit, moved, and started his new job as scheduled. I think D’s employer would have let her start in September but she didn’t want to ask for another extension.
However, I think any outcome would have been fine if they were honest with the employers.