<p>A question from someone near the end of our college experience rather than at the beginning of it.</p>
<p>The company my S interned with this summer extended a formal offer to him just before he left for home last week. He was quite impressed with the company and the offer and is leaning toward taking it. The thing that bothers me is that the offer expires in October, too early to really have a chance to interview with anyone else and make a fair comparison.</p>
<p>We've seen the 2006 salary surveys for his degree at his school and have a fair idea how this offer stacks up against what we expect offers this year were. My S is going to meet with his career counselor when he gets back on campus to see what advise he can offer.</p>
<p>As nice as it is for him to have an offer in his pocket when he starts his senior year, I don't want him to commit to something without knowing his other options. Any suggestions?</p>
<p>If he likes the company, enjoyed and was challenged by his internship, feels comfortable with the compensation package, and is excited by the job, then I think he should seriously consider accepting the offer, despite not having any other concrete offers to compare it to.</p>
<p>One of the largest reasons companies--particularly large companies--hire summer interns is to get top workers into full time positions with their companies. The situation should be a win-win for company and student. </p>
<p>It's a tough situation--in many ways comparable to ED decisions. With Early Decision, there's no way to compare college acceptances or financial aid packages, but people enter into ED contracts all the time when they really like the school. </p>
<p>In the end, it's your son's call. He should think about all sides and think about what his instincts are saying. It sounds like he wants to take the job. I think you should just be as supportive as possible with whatever he chooses. I'm sure he can recognize the pros and cons by himself, so I really think you should avoid pointing them out unless he asks specifically for your thoughts and advice. </p>
<p>Just to add a bit more to some already good comments and advice from corranged. You son actually has better information about this position and company than he could get from any other potential future offers since his internship gave him first hand insight into the organization and potentially the job position (if the position being offered is similar to what he did during his internship or at least is in the same area of the organization). The ED analogy is quite appropriate here with the additional benefit that he has more information about his ED job choice than just visits and presentations.</p>
<p>Sounds like a win-win to me also. Congratulations.</p>
<p>Strick- Son of a friend had a similar offer. He was torn because as much as he liked the company they would not guarantee the position in the two cities he wanted to live in after graduation. NYC or San Francisco. He could have LA or Boston. After much thought he waited and in the end got a job offer from the same company in NYC. His Mom was in a bit of a panic that he turned down a job in a field he liked at a good salary.
Congrats to the son.</p>
<p>My son had the same experience last year after his internship. In order to receive a nice bonus, he had to let them know by October if he wanted to accept the position. If he chose not to take the bonus, he could accept the position at a later date. They also wanted to pay for his MS degree--the classes started immediately after graduation. Since he had to apply to the program in the Fall anyway, he accepted the job offer and received the bonus. Is this the case for you son also--is his early acceptance tied to a bonus?</p>
<p>Strick-
My s is in the same situation. They offered him a <em>very</em> nice salary with a very nice signing bonus, but as attractive as that is to him, the position they offered him will put him on a track that he doesn't think is the best fit for him in the long run and is in a city he doesn't think he really wants to live in. There is always the possibility of getting into another side of the corporate house, as it were, in an area that is more attractive to him, but of course there are no gurarantees. So, I support his decision to wait a bit, even if it means potentially turning down big money. He is out of town for a few days, and has another interview with a different company scheduled upon his return (if Hurricane Dean doesnt interfere with travel plans back). Right now he wants a little time to think, and gosh, he hasn't even started his sr yr yet. He realizes it is a nice problem to have, but it doesn't make it any easier to solve. Congrats to your son! I think it is ok for them to follow their gut. I turned down the first 2 jobs offered to me after grad school because they didn't "feel right" for differing reasons. I am very happy with the choice I made, and haven't looked back. Best of luck to your son!!</p>
<p>DH took the Fortune 500 job he was offered after his junior year internship -- he interviewed some more, but never found anything else that was as a good a fit, esp. since he knew by that point what he was getting into. We were dating long-distance at that point, and the internship was funding our horrendous phone bills. He now says that if it weren't for that company, we might not be married, because he never would have been able to spend that much money on the phone.</p>
<p>He graduated in December, started in January, and stayed for almost five years before returning to grad school. They were terrific to him, were wildly enthusiastic about his grad school plans, and the going-away party they threw when he left was bigger than our wedding reception. (They also let him work the first summer after grad school.)</p>
<p>All depends on what your son wants and how the job fits. If he was talented enough to get an offer from the summer position, he will surely be able to get some more good interviews (and offers!) before graduation. It sure is nice to feel wanted, though! :)</p>
<p>Lots of great thoughts and advice above. My comments are tw0:</p>
<p>1) If he's quite tempted by it, it's not such a bad idea to take it. If it turns out not quite right, it can always be the jumping off point for his next career move. Nothing wrong with that.
2)
[quote]
too early to really have a chance to interview with anyone else and make a fair comparison
[/quote]
Granted that it would be a bit of a push timw-wise, but if there is a company (or two) that he knows he'd really like to consider... .he has time to contact them for an interview now, even if it's not the usual recruiting season. Again, nothing wrong with letting them know that he has a nice job offer in hand with a deadline but is really interested in whether there are opportunities at their company.</p>
<p>My ds, a rising senior, received an open ended job offer from his summer internship. He loved his summer in Padadena but left his options opened as he would like to stay in the east.</p>
<p>He did request and got three great letters of recommendation however.But who knows,he may very well end up there in 10 months.</p>
<p>If your student is confident of his options as graduation nears as our son is, undue pressure by intership companies would be viewed very negatively. And rightfully so. And if your student is so highly qualified, why should he/she eliminate post grad options so early????</p>
<p>There is a signing bonus involved. I understand that they'd be willing to extend the offer a little bit, but to be honest, the offer is designed to encourage him decide in their favor. Heck, the offer isn't contingent on him finishing his degree. They offered to let him keep the cube he was working in if he accepted immediate (I hope they were joking).</p>
<p>This is a case where the company, the location, the people, and the work seem to be a good fit to him (I'm sympathetic to the students mentioned for whom that wasn't the case). If this was his decision after he had a chance to compare it to some other options, I'd be proud. It's the rush that bothers me.</p>
<p>He's considered his post grad options. He's not very interested in the research it would entail and he's done the math on the opportunity costs. If he wanted to go take the 5th year graduate degree option, the choice he's talked most about, he'd have to make that decision almost as early.</p>
<p>Most companies are pretty savvy about competition in their particular niche. So if he's got a banking offer, for example, it's going to be pretty much on par with what he could get from a peer competitor. Ditto for consulting, IT, etc. If he's wondering what the opportunity could be for another company in the same field where it could be a marginally better fit.... I'd suggest that he look long and hard at the bird in the hand. It would be hard to beat the current offer financially, and the differences at least in the first year or two are likely to be very subtle, i.e. not worth the aggravation to try and hustle up more interviews/offers right now.</p>
<p>If he's interested in exploring opportunities in other industries or functions, he should contact the career development folks asap. They've got last years statistics on offers extended, offers accepted, starting salary per company, etc. and could quickly put him in touch with young alums who have gone to those companies and can give him the skinny very quickly. This kind of networking can be really valuable-- he'll hear from someone from his own college about what the work and climate is really like, and will be able to decide if it's worth risking the current offer to explore something new.</p>
<p>He can contact any companies he's interested in right now (i.e. before Labor Day) and let them know he's got an exploding offer. Their college recruiting people know about the kids on short deadlines, and many of them will offer him an accelerated interview timetable in early September so he can kick the tires a bit before he needs to make a decision on the current offer. He should be aware, however, that he needs to keep a very high ethical profile if he opts to do this....He should tell the current company that he's got interviews lined up in September; he should make sure that if he needs an extension of a day or two (which virtually all companies will honor if he's running out of time) that he keeps to that timetable; he absolutely cannot renege on any verbal commitments he makes during this time if he wants to keep the good faith of his internship company.</p>
<p>My company's college recruiters have heard it all. We will bend over backwards to accomodate a senior who wants to explore other options. We get very aggravated when we get lied to (and truth always comes out.) If a kid comes back to us that they've got a higher offer from XYZ company and that if we could match it they'd take our offer, they'd damn better have a higher offer. When the stats come out at the end of the recruiting "season", published by the college's own career office, it's not hard for us to see if we've been lied to. Remember that by April or May the kid doesn't actually work for us yet.... so if he's negotiated an offer in bad faith, he's got to show up for a job in August or September where he's already burned a couple of bridges...</p>
<p>But these things usually work out for the best. Companies like to retain summer interns who performed well. They come in next year already knowing the ropes, with a strong base of support from the people who supervised them. Many companies statistics on promotion and advancement suggest that summer interns do better over both the short and long hauls as a result of the early experiences-- which is why we all invest so much money in recruiting college juniors, which is why we invest all that money in the internship programs, and which is why we all offer nice financial inducements to these kids to come back after they graduate.</p>
<p>Thanks, Blossom, I'll mention those options to my S. </p>
<p>My concern isn't the money. Their offer was designed to get my his attention. I'm sure someone might offer more, but we're more concerned that whatever job he takes is a good fit and will take him where he wants to go rather than thinking he might have gotten a little more money with a different offer.</p>
<p>The fit part seems good to him, it's the work that seems a bit off the career direction he's been talking about lately. I also think it might top out fairly early and get too repetitive for a young man who bores easily. </p>
<p>I think I'll suggest he think about where this will go over the years versus the alternatives he's talked about. In the end, all of you are right, it'll be his decision.</p>
<p>Strick11 - My son (2006 grad) had the same experience of a job offer which expired in October offered at the end of his junior summer internship. The choice of whether or not to take the job led to a lot of stress for my son. If this job is right for your son and he wants to accept the offer, that is great, but I wanted to let you know that this practice is against recruiting the rules of most college career centers, including the college my son attended. We were not aware of this at the time when he was deciding whether or not to take the job. It is called an "exploding offer", referring to a job offer that expires before the traditional recruiting season, thus preventing the student from comparing offers. <a href="http://www.naceweb.org/about/offers.html%5B/url%5D">http://www.naceweb.org/about/offers.html</a>
You can google the term and find many other links, including from specific college career centers. Although this practice is "against the rules", I don't know what, if anything, a student in your son or my son's position can do about it, since the prospective employer is the one who is in power in this situation.</p>
<p>This is taken from the Stanford Career Development Center website, for example: <a href="http://cardinalcareers.stanford.edu/employers/policies.html%5B/url%5D">http://cardinalcareers.stanford.edu/employers/policies.html</a>
"Job offer policy
A few employers have resorted to using exploding offers, a recruiting tactic which neither serves the best interests of the students nor that of the employer. An exploding offer requires a student to choose a job offer within a very short amount of time or face having the offer rescinded. Exploding salary bonuses, even after the minimum deadlines, are not allowed.
In order to give students enough time to make an informed and thoughtful decision, please give students the following minimum deadlines when accepting an offer:
Fall Quarter: 3 weeks minimum response time, from receipt of the written offer
Winter Quarter: 3 weeks minimum response time, from receipt of the written offer
Spring Quarter: 2 weeks minimum response time, from receipt of the written offer
Summer Quarter: If you would like to make an offer of full-time employment to a student at the end of a summer internship, the student has until November 30th to accept*.
*Please keep in mind, many students will not have gone through the full recruiting process prior to their summer internship.
All employers who participate in any of the CDC's recruiting programs are required to work within guidelines established by the National Association of Colleges & Employers (NACE). These guidelines can be found in the document Principles for Professional Conduct."</p>
<p>Strick11-
did your son go through informational sessions with several companies before obtaining and accepting his internship? My son attended five different ones, all given by competing companies where he went on tours, talked to employees, disccussed benefits, etc--so he had a fairly good idea of what the other companies had to offer before he accepted an internship, and eventually a job, with one in particular that he liked. Are there other firms that he feels he might like better, or are there other areas in the country that he would prefer? As is true in choosing a college to attend, kids are different, and I could tell that he had a tremendous sense of relief going into his senior year with a job in hand--others prefer living a bit on the edge and keeping their eyes out for better situations, so whats best for one may not work for another.</p>
<p>He's attended various job fairs and information sessions since he was a freshman, and spoken to a number of companies he thinks he might like to work for. Most wanted to wait to talk seriously until he was a senior and not all the companies he was interested in offered internships. This company definitely is one of the ones he was strongly interested in.</p>
<p>A big question is the work he'd be doing which isn't what he expected when he first considered the company. It's challenging but not very glamorous and I worry he won't be able to get into what he originially wanted to do if he starts down this path and changes his mind. On the positive side, it is his discipline's equivalent of plumbing; if he can stand it and is good at it, he'll never go without a job.</p>
<p>The location is almost ideal, and that's a strong positive. Nearly any other company will want him to work further from home where the cost of living is much higher. </p>
<p>I do understand the attraction of starting your senior year with a good job offerl; I also recognize the tempation of accepting an offer to avoid facing the work and risk of rejection that comes with normal recruiting. A two edged sword.</p>
<p>MotherOfTwo, that's a lot to think about. He'll be speaking to his career counselor in a couple of weeks and it could get interesting. If the company is violating its agreement with the school, what can he say that won't jeopardize his offer which he really is considering? It sounds like they're skirting right on the edge of the rules.</p>
<p>I don't know that there is anything he can do except ask for more time to make a decision if he is unsure. If they think he is such a great candidate, one would think they would allow him more time to decide. If he asks, all they can say is "no" but perhaps they will give him more time. My son's situation got very complicated and it wouldn't be appropriate for me to publicly post all of the details. I will be glad to discuss it by PM, if you wish.</p>
<p>Mother, if there is a concern about the company violating its agreement with the school, that is not something your son should get involved in. Just my opinion. He should feel free to email his career counselor and let him/her know about the exploding offer and the deadline; the counselor will take immediate action if the company is in violation. If it's a grey area, the head of career services will most likely make a friendly phone call to the head of College Recruiting at the company, chat for a couple of minutes, and then say casually that this is the time of year when everyone needs to be reminded of the ground rules as the season kicks off.... and oh by the way, please make sure that our students are not erroneously led to believe that they've got less time to make a decision than the mutually agreed to deadlines.</p>
<p>No reason for your son to sound like he's whining about his offer... which sounds quite attractive, by the way.... when these things can be handled by appropriate channels.</p>
<p>In terms of mother's suggestion re: deadlines-- that's one of the reasons I suggested earlier that your son make sure to be very transparent with the company over the next few weeks. My company bends over backwards to help kids with deadlines and decisions if they've been open and honest with us about their issues. We get testy with kids who are playing games.</p>
<p>Example-- kid says, "I'd love to accept your offer, but I'm exploring an opportunity with a company that will relocate me to Paris for two years. Since I've been studying French for the last 8 years but have never had an opportunity to travel in france this sounds too good to pass up. Your company doesn't have an operation in Paris-- so I'd like a two week extension to explore this other situation". We are very happy to give an extension under these circumstances. When said kid comes back needing another week so he can fly out to Menlo Park for yet a different company (and we have a job for him in Menlo Park if he's interested....he could have easily picked that facility if that location were of interest....) we get annoyed and often aren't inclined to give another extension.</p>