<p>I interviewed with company 1 and company 2, both through my school's career center. Company 1 is my first choice in terms of location, industry and future career development. Company 2 offered me the job fast, and after negotiation I only had a week to consider it, and I was told that they have to move on if I don't make a decision after the one week I was given. I pushed company 1 to give me a decision, yet despite the people there wanting to help they still can't let me know the result. </p>
<p>Now my deadline is apporaching, I really want to decline company 2 and wait for comapny 1, but at the same time I don't want to face the situation where comapny 1 rejects me and I end up with no offer. I can take the offer from company 2 but I won't be happy in company 2, and since they are in different industries I might not be able to swich to comppany 1 in the future. I think accepting and then reneging on company 2's offer is unethical and too risky for my repuation. </p>
<p>I kind of feel that company 1 doesn't really want me as they couldn't speed up the process (they are hiring about 20-30 people for my position and interviewing a lot more than that though), but regardless I still want to work for company 1. I can possibly swich to comapny 1 once I get some experience in company 2 but from what I heard that's very difficult. </p>
<p>So I have to make a decision without all the information, any suggestions/advice on what I should consider in making the difficult decision - the most difficult in my life so far? What do you think you would do if you were in my shoes and why? Thanks a lot for any input!</p>
<p>I wouldn’t assume that Company 1 is uninterested in you based on their inability to push the date they told you they’d get back to you. Your offer form C2 is not technically an exploding offer, but it is still a little unfair that they would give you a one-week deadline. If I were you, I would see if I could buy some time. Shoot an email to C2 and say that you are trying to ensure that you make the best decision for you and for them, and see if they can give you an extra week to make your decision.</p>
<p>When I was doing recruitment, I got my offers basically at the same time. It was a serious decision, though, and I wound up taking two weeks to decide between them; one company had only given me a week to respond, so I asked for an extension, and they happily obliged me. I was worried that I might get the response of, “Oh, you’re not interested 100%? Offer rescinded!” But the reality is that since they gave me an offer, they wanted me to work for them, and they didn’t want to lose a prospective employee because they set an artificial, arbitrary deadline.</p>
<p>If you can’t get them to extend the deadline, I would mention to C1 that, while they are your top choice, you are compelled to accept an offer that you already have. As they say, a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush - rather accept an offer and wonder what could have been at the other company than decline an offer, get rejected from the other company and be left to start over.</p>
<p>Thanks a lot chrisw…I’m sure that the one week is the most I can get, if I still don’t hear back from company 1 I will probably take my second choice with company 2, after all company 2 is better than nothing at all</p>
<p>Accept company 2, and don’t say anything more to company 1. If in a few days/weeks company 1 gives you an offer and you still want to take it, accept it and quit company 2. Barring the slim possibility of a ‘non-compete’ contract (rare for entry level), there’s nothing preventing you from quickly switching to company 1. </p>
<p>If you have a successful run at company 1, the ‘quitting company 2’ thing will be completely irrelevant. Lots of people do this stuff.</p>
<p>My school’s policy, which I would imagine is quite a common one, was that once you accept an offer, you are to withdraw yourself from consideration anywhere else; if you forget to withdraw, it is your duty to decline any other offers you get.</p>
<p>Further, a non-compete is extremely common - common to the point that I don’t know of anyone who got a full-time offer using OCR and didn’t sign a non-compete. That said, the presence of a non-compete is wholly irrelevant since he will not start working at this company for, likely, nine months.</p>
<p>To the point you make about quitting after you start, that is interesting. The ethics of job searching call for you to withdraw yourself from consideration at other companies as soon as you accept an offer. There is nothing wrong, however, with looking for a new job as soon as you start the job you originally accepted - it is accepted and expected that people are constantly looking to improve their chances of success in business.</p>
<p>Basically this is how it works. If the policy exists, the company recruiters will know about it, you just have to gently remind them about it, they are almost always will back off and honor the policy. If they dont, that company will be forbidden to come back to do on campus recruiting again. In essence, the school has your back, you dont have to fight this alone.</p>
<p>Thanks everone for your advice. My school does have an offer policy that suggested 3-4 weeks to let the student to consider the offer, yet unfortuntely what happened has happened. The career center staff didn’t advice me to remind company 2 about our offer policy, they were disspointed thought to hear the 1 week deadline though. I think I will wait for comoany 1 for a couple more days before the offer from comapny 2 expires, then I will accept the offer and withdraw from company 1.</p>
<p>So wait, your school does have an offer policy, but you have not reminded a company that recruited through your school about that policy? If you have not already done that or, at the very least, asked for more time, you SHOULD do that. And if they don’t give you more time, wait until the very last day before giving your acceptance. You shouldn’t feel bullied into accepting a job offer!</p>
<p>Wow. I have been following this thread since it started, and at first I was in support of taking Company 2’s offer at the last hour of the deadline. But now that I hear Company 2 is violating the career center’s policy, if it was me I would remind them about that policy, and if they refused to follow it, at the end of the deadline just tell them you cannot accept the offer until either 1) you hear back from the other company, or 2) another couple of weeks have passed to meet the career center policy. Maybe that would mean unemployment in the end, but Company 2’s policy-violating “bully” attitude (as chrisw put it) says something about their company’s culture.</p>
<p>Honestly, now I would not even blame you if you did as Cobra says, since the entire demand from them is unethical and therfore they cannot demand an ethical obligation from you. However, you would have to decide if the risks chrisw mentioned is worth it, even without there being an ethical side to it anymore.</p>
<p>I also however don’t blame you still go with your current plan (to just go with Company 2 at the end of the deadline). Unemployment is definitely a bad thing, especially in this economy. Good luck with whatever you do!</p>
<p>Accept the offer from Company 2 and if you get one from Company 1, where you would rather work, than accept that one and tell Company 2 you changed your mind. That seems like it offers you the best option. If company 2 has a problem with you changing your mind, just remind them that you asked for more time so that this situation didn’t occur.</p>
<p>The staff in my school’s career center thought it was too late to remind company 2 now since it reached the point where they can’t push the deadline anymore. The one week I had was a result of an extension already - when I got the offer they wanted to give me 2 days to consider. Later when I asked for more time I was told the one week is the most they can get as they promised other candidate that they would be in touch in that time frame, so basically I was told I have to make a decision, or they will have to move on. My advisor in the career center said that I should ask for more time early on, since now it seems that I just can’t get more time, and that most companies don’t comply with the 3-4 weeks offer guideline anyway, although they usually give student two weeks instead of one. I will wait till the last minute before I accept the offer from company 2, but if after doing whatever I can to push company 1 I still don’t get a decision from them, I will go with company 2. I’d rather have some experience in company 2 and later switch to company 1 than facing unemployment, even though switching might give me a huge disadvantage in the future……</p>
<p>you should note that it is unlikely any of these school policies are binding in any shape or form. They encourage you and try to guilt trip you to do what they want. Ultimately, you have to decide what it best for you. “Breach of integrity” is laughable. Don’t let someone else impose imaginary standards (that don’t even benefit you) on your life.</p>
<p>I will say, that if you take company 2, and then company 1 offers, and you want to go to company 1, you should get it in writing that they know you are going to leave company 2. Keep in mind that this can come with ramifications in the industry, depending on what it is, and you can probably expect to never be hired by company 2 at any point during your career if you do this.</p>
<p>Neither the school or the company is looking out for your best interest as an individual. If you aren’t going to look out for yourself, no one will. There is nothing wrong with always looking for better opportunities.</p>
<p>Still not hearing from company 1 before the deadline, I accepted the offer from company 2 one hour before it expires. Thank you everyone for your inputs!</p>