URGENT: Waiting for grad decisions vs accepting job offer

Question

Hi!

I'm currently waiting for grad decisions that wont come out in a while (Stern and Yale) but I'm also in the final interview round (tomorrow) for a good company. My first choice is grad school and I intended the job to be a backup (since I only applied to 3 schools), however the process for applying for the job was much quicker than expected and I still have not heard back from grad schools. Hence, can anyone give advice on what I can do?

Ideally, I would like to be given more time to decide on the offer but since for Stern the last notification date is in April, the school in the UK I applied to is on rolling decisions, and I wont hear back from Yale in late March, I'm not sure the company would wait that long. And I don't want to accept a job and then leave it but at the same time I can't risk declining the offer if I don't get into any school. Has anyone experienced this before? I would really appreciate your help.

bb · Answer

Good question.... 😎 Obviously the concern is that you may burn a bridge with your potential future employer. It would not be right to start a job only to quit three months later. That would be the worst scenario but it also would be pretty bad to miss out on the job if school falls through. Timing is tricky.

You obviously don’t want to lie and you don’t want to burn the bridge. Even if you succeed in delaying the decision until April, and you get admitted, you would be backing out of an offer and potentially burning the bridge. if they wait for you for two months, it wouldn’t be right to back out at that time either. They could’ve had somebody working all this time. If I were the hiring manager, I would not be happy to be led to believe that you could start in April and give the time only to be told sorry. I’d be pretty upset.

I think you have to tell them the truth. As awkward as it sounds... Unless of course you have no issues making them wait till April and then dumping them. In that case you could tell them that you have committed to a project that you are seeing to completion and you’re not available to start until April. It would kind of be a truth but not really Since you’re leaving out the big part that if your project succeeds, you would not be coming.

Perhaps you can start slow and just raise the question o expected starting time and if there is flexibility. You could use legitimate reasons such as bonus payment in March or April and that you can’t leave until then which many companies do pay bonuses at that time frame (Although my understanding is that you may not need to be employed past January 1 to be eligible but different companies have different rules.

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Admissionado · Answer

blcm :

This issue has come up with several of our clients. In most of the cases, they ended up either taking the job (and turning down the school offer or trying to defer until next year) or turning down the job and putting all their eggs in the basket for the admissions decision. It seems extremely unlikely that you will be able to stretch this offer out to fit your timeline.

Brass tacks, you have to ask yourself: while this may be a good company, is it possible to find another similar job if you turn this offer down and don't end up getting into grad school? If the answer is at least "possibly" it seems worth it to move on and wait for the admissions results to come in starting in late March. This seems to fit your initial priority of school first, job second.

I just don't see a middle ground here as I think asking until late March/early April is not realistic or fair to the company.

Good luck,
Admissionado

URGENT: Waiting for grad decisions vs accepting job offer

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