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Think about this scenario: a student had a positive summer internship experience at ABC Company and was extended an offer for full-time employment at the end of their internship. ABC Company gave the student two weeks to decide if they will accept that offer or not. The student, wanting to ensure that they have a job at graduation, hastily accepts the offer. Now, the student is hearing about other opportunities from their friends and decides they will “keep looking” to see “what other opportunities are available”. The student figures if they do get offered a “more attractive” opportunity, they will simply renege on the original offer of employment. Unfortunately, the student in this scenario is unaware of the negative impact to their professional reputation that results from reneging a job offer. This is a practice that the Pulsifer Center for Career Development STRONGLY discourages, for a number of reasons.
Why it is NOT a good idea to renege on a job offer:
- It burns a bridge with the company who offered you employment. At some point, this was a company that you strongly considered joining. Reneging an offer with this organization essentially will eliminate your ability to pursue employment with them in the future.
- It damages your professional reputation. During the process of recruiting with this organization, you have likely worked with recruiters, hiring managers and some potential colleagues. These are people who put time, effort, and consideration into offering you an employment opportunity. (And if you interned with this organization, the personal investment of these individuals is even greater.) Reneging on an offer risks severely damaging these professional relationships and can impede your future career opportunities. Recruiters across companies have professional relationships and do talk. Employees make professional moves from one organization to another frequently. The impact of your decision to renege can extend to other organizations over time.
- It puts Bentley in a bad light. Employers expend a lot of time and effort into recruiting students into coveted internship and entry level positions. Experiences showing poor professionalism in Bentley students can jeopardize the future relationship of Bentley with that employer.
What can you do instead?
- Take time to critically evaluate the offer you have received before accepting. Job offers are about more than salary. When evaluating offers you must consider what are the most important factors of the job to you? Factors would include things like job content, culture, location, potential for hybrid/remote/flexible schedules, work-life balance etc. Remember, we are not looking for complete perfection! If a job delivers on the aspects that are most critical to you, then this should place it in serious consideration! Conversely if when evaluating at the opportunity you have serious reservations about an aspect of the job that is very important to you, the right move could very well be to decline the offer and keep looking.
- Ask for an extension. If you need/want more time to consider your options – for example, if you are interviewing with another company and would like to see the process through, you can ask for an extension to your offer deadline. Some companies are amenable to extensions, some are not – but you will not know until you ask. Consult with your career coach on how to do so professionally.
- Temper your FOMO. We understand. Once you’ve been offered a position and asked to commit, it can suddenly be overwhelming to determine if this is the “right” choice for your first job (or a critical internship). You might suddenly have a heightened awareness of other opportunities that employers are offering, and you hear about other offers to other students that perhaps involve more money or some other attractive perk. This is the time to take a deep breath, block out the outside “noise”, and think: does the offer you were extended meet YOUR most important criteria? Is it an opportunity that will keep you moving forward in YOUR career/life goals? Each student will have a very individualized career journey and offers you may hear of are not always apples to apples comparisons. Try to ignore the distractions and focus on your goals, your opportunities, and the best decision for you.
As always, reach out to your career coach or come to career colleague drop-in hours to discuss the professional management of your offers.
