Dear Jonathan, I am a final year student holding a job offer in financial services. Would it be an issue if I now turn down the offer I have?
Dear Jonathan,
I am a final year student holding a job offer in financial services; I signed a contract to start in September. I’ve been looking around and talking to friends and I’m now wondering if I could do better with another company? Before I make the applications, would it be an issue if I now turn down the offer I have?
First, congratulations on holding a job offer in the very competitive world of financial services. If your experience was similar to other students’, you probably made dozens of applications, and then went through a series of interviews, case studies, and assessment centres to finally land an offer – so again, well done on the achievement.
It is not uncommon for people who have secured a successful outcome (albeit after much hard work) to then think that it is easily repeatable. There would have been a strong element of chance in your success since your hard work, skills and experience are not enough to secure a role. Many students who on paper seem ideally suited for a role, and who interview well, may still not secure the job because the recruiter makes their own decision.
Having said that, even if you were successful in securing another offer, you would then have to break your contract and renege on the first offer. The London Stock Exchange adopted an official motto in 1801 of Dicteum meum pactum – or My word is my bond. However much standards might have changed in wider society, this ethical position is still the ideal and if you break it, your personal brand may be tarnished.
Recall that you were probably thrilled to receive the job offer and happily committed to it, giving you a secure start on your career after graduation. Rather than spending time and energy seeing if you could do better, commit to the new role, focus on your final exams, and enjoy this term. After a year or two gaining experience at the company, you can then, with greater experience, start considering options.
Jonathan Black - Director, Oxford University Careers Service
Read more guidance on Handling Job Offers and Handling Rejections.
About the Dear Jonathan column
For six years, the Oxford University Careers Service Director Jonathan Black, wrote a fortnightly column for the Financial Times answering readers’ careers questions - you can still find it here.
Now, the “Dear Jonathan" column has come to Oxford.
If you are an Oxford University student, send in your career question to dear.jonathan@careers.ox.ac.uk and each week of term, he will answer one of the questions in this feature. We’ll anonymise the author (but please tell us whatever is relevant) so you can be sure that readers won’t know it’s you
