On behalf of the Career Management Center team, I want to say we hope you had a fantastic summer and are excited to be back on campus. We, at the CMC, are certainly glad you’re back!
At this point, you have likely been having conversations with previous employers, summer employers, or potential new employers about full time job opportunities. It’s important to remember that communication and positioning with the employer are key and that the CMC can help coach you through any challenging situation.
For your reference, ALL organizations who recruit GSB students are bound by the CMC’s Recruiter Conduct Policies. This means that regardless of the channel through which you found your job (On Campus Recruiting, Networking, Head Hunter, etc), the company(ies) from which you receive an offer must adhere to GSB recruiting policies. This includes offer consideration deadlines and incentives or changes in offer terms. This year the offer consideration deadlines for MBA2′s are:
- December 5, 2014 – MBA2 Offer Consideration Deadline for Pre-existing student/employer relationships (summer interns, pre-MBA employer)
- January 9, 2015 – MBA2 Offer Consideration Deadline for fall recruiting and non pre-existing relationships
The policies regarding incentives, start dates, and changes in offer terms are:
- An initial job offer containing incentives such as base signing bonus, cash bonuses, performance bonuses, and tuition reimbursement must remain open in its entirety until the offer consideration deadline. Changes in initial offer terms including start date, job location, job function, and base salary are considered violations of the recruiting policies.
- If you request a different office location or materially different job function (ie: role change and/or drastically different responsibilities) and the company accommodates this request, this is considered a rebound offer; defined as when the original offer is for one office/location/role/function, but a secondary offer is made for an alternate office/location/role/function, most common with Consulting firms or Banks, particularly as far as location is concerned.
- If you request, and as a result a company makes, a rebound offer, this is considered a little differently than the way standard offers are considered per the GSB policy. Any firm offering a rebound offer must allow students to have 3 weeks from the written (rebound) offer date to consider that offer, but as long as the company leaves the original offer out until at least Dec 5, 2014, they are not in violation of our offer policy.
If you’re getting pressure from an organization to accept an offer I recommend the following steps:
- Be honest with yourself – do you really want this offer/job? If not, decline the offer. Employers are balancing many factors and don’t appreciate being strung along. Declining an offer can be done in way that leaves doors open for you. Click here for more information.
- Ask for time to consider the offer. Be appreciative and succinct in your communication. Thank the employer for the offer, tell them it’s a big decision, and you will need some time to consider.
- Remind the employer of the GSB policies. There are times when employers are unaware of the deadlines or confuse them with other schools. As a FYI, Wharton’s offer consideration deadline for offers made during OCR or from a new employer is 12/1/2014 and Harvard’s is 12/5/2014.
- Ask the CMC to get involved. As the Director of Employer Relations & Recruiting, I manage any employer policy violations. I will confront employers with policy violations only with a student’s permission. In no way do I want to intrude on an employer-student relationship. I can be vague with an organization (meaning I don’t mention any student names) and lightly remind them of our policies, or I can be direct and warn them of their infraction. I appreciate hearing about employers who pressure a student to accept an offer. This allows me to better coach employers and students.
Now that you’re back on campus and embarking on your second year at the GSB, again, know that the entire CMC staff is here to support you throughout your career search. Please don’t hesitate to contact us if you have questions about offer consideration, potential employer policy violations, or just want to chat about career related topics in general.
We look forward to hearing about your summer adventures!