Can You Renege On Your Investment Banking Job Offer Without Being Blacklisted for Life?

Interview season is finished.

You got 30 first round interviews, made it to 5 Superdays, and came away with an offer at UBS – which you quickly accepted.

But 5 minutes ago, you just received a call from your recruiter at Goldman Sachs: “another spot opened up” and they’re extending a summer internship offer to you.

So you renege on the UBS offer and go to the “better” bank, right?

Lateral Hiring 101: How to Look Before You Leap, and Then How to Make the Leap

“Make mistakes of ambition and not mistakes of sloth. Develop the strength to do bold things, not the strength to suffer.”

-Niccolo Machiavelli, The Prince

Except with lateral hiring – where “mistakes of ambition” are sometimes just not worth it.

Look Before You Leap: Should You Do It At All?

This is the first question you need to ask yourself. I get about 10 emails per week saying the following:

“I’m set to work at Deutsche Bank / Credit Suisse / JP Morgan / UBS next year and feel like a failure because I did not get an offer at GS or MS. To improve my self esteem and get better exit opportunities, I want to make a lateral move to a better bank 2 years from now. How can I do this?”

Summer Internship vs. Full-Time Investment Banking Interviews

“Help! How are full-time interviews different from summer internship interviews? How much do I need to study? Should I read 5 books or 10 books in the next 3 days?”

“If I didn’t do an investment banking internship, how can I prepare for full-time interviews? What’s the difference, anyway?“

The short answer: not much.

There are some differences – but they’re not the ones you immediately think of.