Reneging on a 1L Summer Job after you've taken it Forum

[bowser]

A friend of mine took a 1L summer internship at an unpaid, fairly prestigious PI organization. But two weeks later he heard back from a law firm and got an offer for a 1L summer associateship (V50 range, paying market, non-diversity). His #1 goal coming into the summer was to get a firm job---could really use the money. He is wondering what the fallout might be from reneging on his original offer.

1) Could it have an effect at EIP? (Like the lawyers at the PI org bad-mouth him or something) On career down the line? I'm somewhat skeptical of this, but it seems possible.

2) How pissed do you think the lawyers at the PI org would be? Enough to permanently burn bridges? (and how important are those bridges).

[rpupkin]

1) Could it have an effect at EIP? (Like the lawyers at the PI org bad-mouth him or something) On career down the line? I'm somewhat skeptical of this, but it seems possible.

Very unlikely to have an effect at EIP. The main drawback to reneging is that it makes the school look bad; the PI organization is more likely to think that your school is full of thoughtless douches who don't honor their commitments. I think this is one of the main reasons why Career Development offices so strongly discourage students from reneging on summer commitments to organizations and judges.

2) How pissed do you think the lawyers at the PI org would be? Enough to permanently burn bridges? (and how important are those bridges).

LOL. Trust me, you (ahem, I mean "your friend") will have permanently burnt a bridge with that PI org if you reneg after having already accepted an offer. Like I said above, it's not going to hurt you with private firms at EIP, but you're not going to work at that PI org (at least not in that particular office of the org) in the near future.

[bsktbll28082]

Considering this as well for myself actually. Took the first offer I received; now I'm not sure if it was right.

I'm going to talk to our career office about this. If it looks really bad, I'll just suck it up and stay with the first offer.

[mushybrain]

Considering this as well for myself actually. Took the first offer I received; now I'm not sure if it was right.

I'm going to talk to our career office about this. If it looks really bad, I'll just suck it up and stay with the first offer.

I would strongly caution you against taking their advice on this issue. CSOs tend to always insist you can never renege under any circumstances because they're interested in the reputation of their student body as a whole, not your particular situation. It may be that for YOU, it makes sense. From the CSO's point of view, they don't want that organization pissed off at the school because it may turn them off of interviewing there in the future. Which is a fair concern, but that's not the right set of interests to drive an individual student's decision. I'm not saying renege all willy-nilly, but keep in mind who the CSO is actually interested in protecting anytime you seek their advice.

[bsktbll28082]

Considering this as well for myself actually. Took the first offer I received; now I'm not sure if it was right.

I'm going to talk to our career office about this. If it looks really bad, I'll just suck it up and stay with the first offer.

I would strongly caution you against taking their advice on this issue. CSOs tend to always insist you can never renege under any circumstances because they're interested in the reputation of their student body as a whole, not your particular situation. It may be that for YOU, it makes sense. From the CSO's point of view, they don't want that organization pissed off at the school because it may turn them off of interviewing there in the future. Which is a fair concern, but that's not the right set of interests to drive an individual student's decision. I'm not saying renege all willy-nilly, but keep in mind who the CSO is actually interested in protecting anytime you seek their advice.

Sounds good. I'm actually pretty disappointed by my career center overall.