Reneging Internship

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Will she drop for any of the other three offers or only the one she hasn’t gotten yet?

OP here. She already declined other offers weeks ago and then accepted her tentative one two weeks ago. She is hopefully going to hear back tomorrow or Wednesday about her first choice…no word today. She emailed recruiter and told her she has another offer and has to make a decision but didn’t hear back

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So she had a place that offered her a position quickly, went through expense of background check.
Then other places that "ghosted" her and dilly dallied around finally interviewed her and she bonded with the interviewer at one.

You are obviously going to tell her it's fine to stiff the first place for the one that ghosted her but that she has such a great first date with

Remember that. When a place tells you who they are (ghosting applicants) believe them. She is not going to want to work there after the summer and not clear how helpful they will be getting her established in her field. Bait anyone?

OP here. The one that is her first choice never ghosted her, in fact the position only opened for applications about two weeks ago. So you are very wrong in saying that

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DD is an incoming senior. She accepted an internship offer at a small company in a field she is not very interested in a couple of weeks ago out of fear of not having anything else. As pure feast or famine fashion has it, she has received three internship offers since then after months of silence and ghosting. She is pretty confident she will get the internship she had an interview for last Thursday. It is for a bigger company and seems more flexible with hours. Most importantly, felt her conversation with the hiring manager was like a mother daughter or friend talk, not a nervous, boss kind of interview that she has experienced with many other hiring managers over the past few months. She is expecting to hear back early this week about the decision for her first choice. If she gets this opportunity, will it look bad to renege on the offer she already accepted. She already has her background check cleared for the company and is just waiting to start the onboarding process this week with HR. Is this foolish and will the company be very mad?

You don't write clearly that there are 5 companies.

[Anonymous]

OP here again. When I say months of silence and ghosting, I mean it regarding all the applications and interviews she went through the ended with ghosting. The two internships I am talking about(the one she already accepted and the one she is waiting to hear back from) are not ones she was ghosted from(clearly)

[Anonymous]

Mine did exactly this. She got an offer in December that was contingent upon getting security clearance. It was a summer internship that would lead to a job after graduation if all went well. In March while still awaiting security clearance she got another offer much more aligned with her interests. She fretted for a minute about bailing on offer #1 but she was still months away from summer and, let’s be serious, summer interns are not particularly useful to companies or agencies, they are future employees. I strongly encouraged her to just send a professional sounding email that she had decided to accept another offer more in line with her career goals.

[Anonymous]

She should take the internship she is most interested in. Especially since the other one is in a field she doesn't want that much.

It's not good to go back on your acceptance and she should not make a practice of it.

But it's a summer internship. They will deal. They might not even care that much. She should do what is right for her.

I tortured myself backing out of a summer internship (it was in another country and I decided I was uneasy about the safety situation). My dad tried to reassure me they wouldn't care much and it was fine and I thought I was this horrible person but it was fine.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We had an intern do that, and she burned a bridge with us but I could see it was the right move for her. There won’t be any real long-term cost because that candidate wanted her career to go in a slightly different direction.

How did that intern tell your company that she was backing out of the offer

She handled it very well. Was honest, forthright, apologetic and explained the reasoning behind her actions. Acted quickly once she learned of her preferred offer. Said she hopes we could still keep in touch. We’re still annoyed but she did what was best for her and I can’t blame her. It wasn’t a tenure-track hire where we turned down other desirable and specially-qualified candidates; it was an undergrad internship.

[Anonymous]

She just has to accept the fact that she'll never work for the first company.

Corporations see employees as expendable. This is her future. I'd jump the ship.

[Anonymous]

Interns come and go anyway

[Anonymous]

Congrats to your child for getting multiple internship offers in this economy!!

[Anonymous]

I find it really slimy and unethical but you do you OP.

[Anonymous]

Update: my DD got an offer today. She is planning to email the other company tomorrow

[Anonymous]

Congrats! Just make it nice with the company you are reneging from

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I find it really slimy and unethical but you do you OP.

[Anonymous]

Depends on how you perceive it. I say listen to her heart