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I am currently waiting for my clearance from the government. I have a tentative start date for next week. However, I am not sure that I will get cleared and I was recently asked for some information this week so I gave it to them. So I know that my file is being reviewed. I was wondering if it would be in bad taste at this point for me to ask if I can possibly work during the fall instead and take a summer position in my home state? The reason being is that the start date is tentative and I do not think they are going to rush the process in order for them to have a decision for me by next week. So I figured, it would be better for me to ask to work in the fall and if they say no, can I ask to have my file pulled - even though I told them that I would work for them?

Help, please!

I'm confused. Do you have a job in your home state that you want to take instead and you're looking for a reason/excuse to ditch the government gig? If so, when did you apply for it and find out about it? Do you want to withdraw because you don't think you'll pass the clearance, or for some other reason? If you don't think you'll pass now, why would you pass in the fall? And presumably you're not getting paid for the government gig, so why does it matter whether you start now or in two weeks or whenever the clearance gets done?

Personally, I think it would be in poor taste to back out now - not that they're relying on you for anything, I just think it looks flaky to bail the week before you're supposed to start. But that's in part because I don't quite get your reasons for bailing.

Agreed w/ above. I'm a bit confused too.
It would look reeeeeally bad to bail right now, and you'd likely be burning bridges for no good reason as far as I can tell.

I think he's simply saying he doesn't think he will be cleared by his start date, which is why he is thinking of pushing back the internship to the fall. But unless he already has something lined up in his home state — and I don't know why he would — I'm not sure that pushing back the internship will result in having a more productive summer.