<p>I didnt want to steal jym626s thread about the how to handle job offers when waiting for other interviews to be completed, but I have a related question. DS is a rising college senior and currently has an internship at a management consulting firm on one of their IT teams. He is majoring in Marketing and Supply Chain Mgmt, so while the internship isnt really a perfect fit for what hed like to eventually do (more operations-oriented), he says his current position requires knowledge of a wide range of business functions in order to be able to customize a companys software/data management systems. In other words, he feels qualified to do the job, but it’s not a job he saw himself eventually doing.</p>
<p>He has heard through the company grapevine that interns are almost always offered fulltime positions to begin after graduation. If an offer is made, the dilemma is whether he should accept it, even though he wants to explore other possibilities during his senior year. Naturally, given this economy, my H and I would love to see him already have a job lined up for next year.</p>
<p>What are the rules when it comes to this kind of job offer? Do employers really expect to lock in their interns a year in advance? </p>
<p>*PS. The grammar rant thread has made me paranoid. Please forgive any slip-ups! : )</p>
<p>That really is a big issue. Companies do want to lock down their prospects sooner and sooner. The HR dept. want the biggest conversion yield. I guess that is one reason for more ‘reneges’ now than in past.</p>
<p>In my opinion, if he accepts the offer, he should plan to keep his word and go to work for them. I am sympathetic to his plight (I too was a Marketing major, and ended up working for a large management consulting firm on IT projects for about 10 years). I will say that if he truly wants to work in Marketing, he will probably not get a lot of opportunity with those firms. He might be able to angle for assignments to a Supply Chain project, though. But they never know what the work is a year ahead of time. And he might have to travel far afield for that type of assignment.</p>
<p>He can do some research and figure out whether the office(s) he wants to be located in have much in the way of projects that are Supply Chain oriented. He can ask to be assigned to that group if he gets an offer. No guarantees… but if he keeps asking for it, and is in a office that does have a solid practice in that area, he could very well end up getting some great experience (and making good contacts for future jobs in that area, too).</p>
<p>He could take his chances and tell them that he really wants to work in field X and wants to explore those options, and that he isn’t able to make a commitment for a job at this time. In a VERY polite way, and then he could go back and apply for the job again if he finds the market is too soft and he can’t find anything else. Of course, they might not be hiring then. But then again, THEY might renege on the offer between now and graduation if the economy softens more. Believe me, these companies are all about their bottom line. Your son needs to look out for his own career interests. </p>
<p>One more thing… most people who end up working for those firms didn’t envision that as their career. It is a fascinating, fast paced environment with a lot of smart people. It is also long hours, often lots of travel. If he hates the work, of course he shouldn’t do it. But in my opinion it is a great starting point for a career when you are young and have flexiblity.</p>
<p>Frankly, in this hiring market, if he gets a job offer and he likes the COMPANY (even if he doesn’t like the job), IMHO he should accept. If he likes the company, he should be able to change the job over time, if he does well at the one he’s hired for.</p>
<p>dmd77, generally that is true. However, almost all the work these big management consulting companies do is IT related (90%, I bet). If someone REALLY doesn’t want a career in that area, it isn’t a very good fit. Even if OP’s S gets on a supply chain project, it is probably an IT project in this area. Agreed that in this economy a job is a job… but if he really hates that kind of work, he should think twice.</p>
<p>Thanks for your insights everyone. Just to be clear, DS doesn’t hate what he’s doing now. It’s just a different kind of work than he expected to do upon graduation. He doesn’t want to burn any bridges and was unsure about employers’ general expectations with regard to job offers made to interns. </p>
<p>He plans to ask his career services office for their advice. I’m sure this wouldn’t be the first time they heard this question!</p>
<p>Any other advice from the wise posters here at CC would be much appreciated.</p>
<p>One more thing I would say, then turn it over to others. These companies do not take it personally if he turns them down as long as he does it gracefully. If he has good references within the company from his time there, he can still potentially reference those if he changes his mind and wants to apply later. They would rather hire a good intern a year later than someone they have no experience with. So it is really more about the bird in the hand vs. the bird in the bush.</p>
<p>I see little risk in accepting the job and going to work for the company, as long as he enjoys it, the location, and the company. Worst case is he sends his resume out in a years time and finds a job elsewhere which would be fine.</p>
<p>Some college students feel they are most employable right at graduation because their skills quickly wane. Not so. They are least employable right after graduation and become more employable throughout their careers. He’ll be in a strong position to find a better job or company if he chooses in one or two years time.</p>
<p>My daughter´s schools has employer policies for any company that wants to recruit on campus. The is their policy for full-time offers to summer interns:</p>
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<p>Check with your son´s school policy, that is if your son got his internship through school.</p>
<p>When my daughter was interviewing last winter, they also had very strict guideline on when employers could conduct second interview, when students could be invited off campus (for wine and dine), and when students had to reply to offers.</p>
<p>^^^DS pursued this internship on his own without any help from his school. It would be nice if he had the same kind of protection that your D’s school offered. </p>
<p>As of now, if he is made an offer, he will graciously thank them and tell them that he will consider it. We’ll see where it goes from there.</p>
<p>I had a similar position last year. Got a job offer at the end of the internship (I was a rising fourth year/senior, got the offer first week of August) and they wanted an answer within two weeks. I hesitated to sign right away and the manager kept asking me why, to which I replied that I was unsure if it was smart to sign an offer before even applying to any others. Naturally he tried to explain it’s a great job, great pay, and basically the best offer I’d be able to get (yeah right. He even tried to play off the crappy economy. I got five more offers after that one). I told him while it really was a great opportunity, and I would enjoy working for them, I felt it was best in my interest to keep searching. He said I could take the offer but if at any point I felt it was in my best interest to move on, no bridges burned. Worked out well because I had a backup but knew I could keep searching. Ended up taking another job and was still able to use the first company as a reference, no hard feelings anywhere.</p>
<p>So, my advice is for your son to go through the summer and not expect anything. I wouldn’t count on a job offer because of the economy. I wouldn’t count not getting one as a bad sign, again due to the economy. If he does get offered one, I suggest he talk to the manager and explain that while he feels very fortunate about the offer, he doesn’t want to limit himself. There is an entire school year in between the jobs and his interests may change. Employers understand this. If the manager keeps pressuring him to sign, it may not be the best company to work for anyways.<br>
Also, don’t let the economy get in the way of a job. If he has a good GPA and drive, he’ll be able to find a marketing job. He’ll always have BP to fall back on, they’ve got a lot of face image to clean up ;)</p>