My D talked to several people at a college job fair. She thought some sounded intersting. She was called by a few people and did some interviews. 3 had her back and asked her to go on site for interviews. She went to the first one and they offered her the job the next day. She’s still supposed to go in the next month to the others. She has to let the first one know in 2 weeks. Do you just accept an offer in hand? It seems intersting and the pay is very decent but she hasn’t had much time to explore or send out other resumes. It would be a business focused job. Her major was in engineering. She’s not sure she wants to give that up but the tech companies haven’t even been to campus yet, just the business/ consulting ones. What do most people do in this situation. Believe me I know this is a really nice problem to have. Any advice is welcome.
If it were my kid, and she has decent grades and interview skills, I’d tell her to politely ask for more time until her other interviews are done. If they say no, I’d turn it down. Best to continue looking in her major.
Agreed with @intparent with a caveat. Definitely ask for more time - I asked for more time with my first offer as a Senior in college and was granted a two week extension (I got a four-week extension on an offer I wound up accepting two years ago). If your daughter has her heart set on an engineering job and not a consulting/finance one, then it might make sense to decline if enough time cannot be granted. If she is ambivalent, though, I’d be tempted to accept the offer in hand instead of holding out hope that another offer would be coming.
I would be completely honest with the company that gave me an offer: I appreciate the offer and am seriously considering it, but I need to evaluate all of my options before committing. I would also be clear about the other options I am considering (i.e. engineering firms that begin their FT recruitment in mid-November). Considering that the offer was extended in October, she is a top-tier recruit, which gives her some leverage. The company may be willing to accept uncertainty in their new hire class if it is the difference between her potentially accepting and definitely declining.
In terms of expectation-setting, I think that a four-week extension is about as far as is reasonable. Companies giving offers this early probably want to have their new hire class figured out by the end of the calendar year so that they can shift their focus to internship recruitment in January. If the engineering firms do spring recruitment instead of fall recruitment, then a difficult decision must be made: Do I forego the opportunity to learn about my engineering options, or do I expose myself to the risk of not having an offer in hand by graduation? Only your daughter can make that decision.
One thing that I would strongly advise against is accepting the offer in hand but continuing to pursue other opportunities. It is not unheard of for companies to discover that students have chosen this path, and that is bad for everyone. At my university, they took it seriously: If it were discovered that you accepted an offer and a) didn’t inform all other companies with which you are in the hiring process that you would be dropping out or b) continued to pursue other opportunities, you would be kicked out of the on-campus recruiting program (your open applications would be canceled, and you would lose all access to jobs through the university…i.e. you wouldn’t even be able to see openings). In other words, that is a tempting - but really, really bad - idea.