Do I tell them I already accepted a job? (Interview question)

Factual Questions
1

I have to go on two interviews tomorrow. There were jobs posted on my college’s job board for graduating students, and I applied for about half a dozen of them. One company got back to me very quickly, set up an onsite interview, loved me, and made me an offer that I have accepted.

But through our school’s system, three of the other companies have selected to interview me during my school’s on-campus interviews, two of which I have to meet with tomorrow. I’ve been taught that “you decline job offers, never job interviews” so I’m clearly obligated to still meet with these companies since they selected me. But is there a point in the interview where I should mention to them that I’ve already accepted an offer elsewhere?

2

Do not tell them. Always, always, always interview as though you want the job, regardless of what may be in your back pocket. You might impress them enough that you might receive a second, or third job offer, and any one of them could be better than the one you have.

3

No, they won’t appreciate your wasting their time. However, at an appropriate moment, you can tell them that you have another offer in order to move the interview along or bring it to an early close if the job you’ve accepted seems better.

4

You either tell them (or tell them nothing) and don’t go; or you don’t tell them and go. Do not go to the interview and say that you already accepted another job but you’re there for the interview anyway. That’s highly weird and kinda rude.

I don’t agree with “you decline job offers, never job interviews.” If a job sounds like it sucks or the company sucks, then decline the interview. If you really are thrilled with the one you already took, then decline the interview. If you really have no interest in a job or a company, then it’s a waste of time–yours and theirs–by going on an interview, and I think the company would prefer not to interview someone who’s not truly at all interested.

And you’re not obligated to go to an interview just because they selected you.

5

Don’t waste their time. Cancel the interviews. Somebody else may need those jobs.

6

Like what missbunny said. Only go to these if you are very interested in them, not simply to be polite.

7

Then he should not have accepted the first offer, and simply told them he needed a few days to think about it and weigh his options (i.e., to finish his other scheduled interviews).

Then, when speaking to the other firms, he should (have) mentioned that he had an offer on the table already at the end of the interview, and would appreciate a timely decision. The interviewers are people, and like most people, will likely raise their opinion of him (assuming they were considering extending an offer) based on your market aura.

Or, mentioning the remaining interview schedule may cause the first firm to up their offer to try and get him now.

But once you accept, you really should cancel your other interviews, or else call back the first firm and “clarify” that your acceptance was conditional on completing your interview schedule.

If you’re going in with the attitude that these are all interchangeable, faceless companies that it’s OK to jerk around because they’ll do the same once they have the power over you… Maybe you should reconsider your attitude, or else your choice of companies or careers.

Besides which, these aren’t “faceless companies” you’re messing with, but actual people on the other side of the table whose valuable time you’re wasting, not to mention your fellow students whose interview slots you’re taking up if you’re 100% not going to take any job they offer.

8

I teach this kind of stuff in MBA programs, and I’m with robardin

Let me expand: you want to treat others politely. You never know what the future holds – the person who thinks you’ve wasted his time today with a useless interview may be a person from whom you want a favor in future. The person to whom you told that you would accept a job, and then you decline because you got a better offer, may be in a position of power over you someday. Or may be an important client/customer.

Thus, you want people to trust your word. Once you’ve accepted a job, you need to stick with that – they may have already said no to their second choice, for instance.

And you don’t want to go on an interview when you’ve already accepted another offer. That interviewer could be spending time with someone else, more productively.

9

Ditto. My previous post was based on the current situation, and I’m rather embarrassed that I didn’t stop to think about what got you into this position to begin with. Was the offer you got really all that great? If not, then why did you accept it? And if it was, then stop playing around.

10

Depending on the industry, word may get around that you accepted a job and then still went on interviews. When I was in consulting you better believe that if someone accepted a job at one firm and then went on interviews at another, the recruiters would learn about it eventually and that would have been very, very bad for you.

I can see if you accepted a job because you were desperate and then right away got some other interview at a potentially much better place that you might still go on the later interview. I just don’t think that happens that often.

The best thing to do is to not accept job offers until you’ve interviewed everywhere you have interest unless you’re SURE you’re accepting for the place you want.

11

Absolutely what Robardin said.

Phoning to let them know you already have a job leaves the impression of a successful polite chap.
Turning up and saying you already have a job makes you a bad bet for any future relationship.

Related anecdotes:

  • I once turned up for interview (computer programmer) only to be told the job description had changed. :smack: (They did apologise profusely and pay my expenses.)
    I told them I didn’t know the software they now needed, but could learn it.
    The interviewer gaped at me. “You’re the first person ever to be honest like that. Let me make a note of your name.” :slight_smile:

  • my well-qualified mate was moving to a new area.
    The first interview offered him a job. He said he’d let them know within 24 hours. The second interview offered him a job. He said he’d let them know too. They asked “Has anyone else made you an offer?” He said they had. They brought in the Division Head who said “How much do you want to sign up for us right now?” :smiley:

12

I agree wholeheartedly. I have been in the IT industry for 28 years, and have been a hiring manager for 22. It’s bad business to accept an offer if you don’t intend to take the job.

However, as for taking an interview when you’ve already accepted an offer, it isn’t the most terrible thing you could do, but I’m not sure why you would want to waste your time doing it.

Once my company made an offer to a guy who, naturally, had been doing other interviews. He accepted our offer and started the job, and a week later resigned because he got a better offer from one of the other interviews. That burned a lot of bridges. It would have been a lot better for him to sit on our offer until he really knew what he wanted to do.

13

I agree with the spirit of your post, however…how many companies have you worked for who wouldnt jerk around their employees? if you gave a 2 week notice today would you in fact still be working for 2 more weeks? or would security walk you off the premises today?

do unto others is a cool idea but my experience with business tells me that most of them dont give much of a crap.

14

How is the OP jerking anyone around? Sure he has accepted an offer at the first company, but might be willing to accept this second offer if it is better in some way. Nothing wrong with testing the waters, and certainly nothing wrong with accepting the first offer so it doesn’t slip away. I know of no tactic of negotiation that requires an interviewee to be brutally honest with everything.

Why should he put the first offer on “hold” instead of accepting it? Always look out for #1 first. I’m always in the market for a new job, but on the flip side I am loyal. Don’t ever take advantage of that loyalty by screwing with me over pay, benefits, etc. It is always first and foremost a business decision. Isn’t that what the companies tell you when it is time for layoffs?

As an individual, why would you throw opportunity #2 out the window when it could be the best thing for you and your family? Would you do it just to engender what corporate America feels is “goodwill”? The people that work for these faceless companies have morphed into them, so in their official positions: fuck 'em. As people they are just like anyone else.

Also, fear not, at least one interview spot will turn up for the fellow students.
when the OP decides which job to take.

15

Testing the waters is getting an offer and telling the offering company that you’re still interviewing and want to wait. I agree with Dex and the others that accepting an offer and then dumping it is a very bad move, except for very extraordinary circumstances. The offering company might have already told the other candidates no, and then will have to reopen the req. If I heard of someone who pulled this I’d consider him untrustworthy and not worth even considering. I agree that negotiations don’t require brutal honesty, but they also don’t include lying, and accepting an offer and then continuing to interview is lying, basically.

I can see the never turn down an interview rule when you’re actually looking, not when you should have stopped. Interviewers don’t enjoy the process so much that they’ll be heartbroken if you cancel. They can either find time for another person or take a break.

And Critical1, I got my full two weeks last time I quit. I’ve seen people escorted off at the same company, but the person was going to work for a competitor. I’ve never seen it happen at my current company.

16

I just went through a (somewhat) similar situation.

I’m an engineer who’s been working for a consulting firm for the last few years. I felt like I was stagnating in my position, so I passed out two resumes to other consulting firms. At around the same time, I sent in an application to a public water/sewer utility in response to an ad. Being a widely advertised position, I felt that this job was more of a long shot. Finally, I passed a resume to a friend working at a power plant.

Both consulting firms promptly called me in for two rounds of interviews, and both made me offers. I requested that the firm that made the first offer extend their offer to finish the interview process at the second. They did so, and I ended up accepting the first offer. While I hadn’t heard back from the public utility or the power plant, I felt that I had stretched the consulting offer extension as far as I could, and besides, I felt that both of the other jobs were long shots.

I gave my notice, and started at the consulting firm. My first week at the new job, I got the call from the public utility, over six weeks after I applied.

This put me in a bind. The public utility job had a lot of benefits compared to any consulting firm, the biggest being no travel. So I went in for the interview. During the interview, I told them that I had already accepted and started a job at another firm, because they had taken so long to respond. (Besides, they would find out anyway when they checked my references.)

The interview went well, but they still moved very slowly. Six weeks after the interview, I had a job offer in hand, and decided to accept it.

With great trepidation, I gave my notice at the firm I’d been working at for six weeks. I was honest with them, and explained the situation. Fortunately, while they were disappointed, they handled my resignation very graciously. I worked my last two weeks there (and worked as hard as I could, so as not to leave a bad impression).

I must have done something right, because they told me that if the public utility job didn’t work out, to just give them a call. My (former) boss told me that I certainly hadn’t burned any bridges.

Now for the twist. Right before I started at the public utility, I got the call from the power plant, over two months after passing on my resume. At this point, I had no intention of going through that again. I regretfully declined the interview, telling them that I had already accepted another job offer. I also called my friend, thanked him, and explained the situation.

So anyway, you have to do what’s best for you, your family, and your career, but you also don’t want to burn bridges. In the OP’s situation, if one or both of the other jobs are clearly head and shoulders above the one you accepted, then go for the interview(s). To get them moving, you might mention that you have a job offer on the table, but I definitely would not tell them that you had already accepted it. If you decide to accept one of the other offers instead, be as apologetic as possible when you tell the first company.

17

How many jobs have you had? This is not negotiation. If you have accepted an offer, you have made an agreement. It is, at best, unethical to break an agreement.

Deciding who to work for is a legit business decision, sure. But how would you feel if you accepted an offer, showed up for your first day of work, and the company told you they changed their mind, because they found someone they liked better?

Nobody is saying throw #2 out the window. But there is absolutely no reason to accept #1 if you haven’t really decided. They will give you a reasonable amount of time to decide, and may be willing to wait even longer if they really want you and you tell them you have other opportunties to evaluate. I have done this twice and it was no problem at all.

And if you ever backed out of an acceptance and then ever applied again my official position would be “fuck you.” You will find that the IT industry is a very small world and having a good reputation is a valuable investment.

18

You must have handled the entire situation very professionally to have left on good terms; congratulations.

I just wanted to mention that if a company takes six weeks/two months to make an *interview * decision, they probably have some internal problems that you may be treated to later on. Sounds very bureaucratic. The last company I worked for typically took 2 weeks from receiving the resume to making an offer. They had a very refined recruiting process.

19

In 1999, I had been with this IT company for 10 years, and I had reason to suspect that they wanted me out, but were keeping me on only to get past the Y2K problems. I asked, and they reassured me that I was mistaken, my job was safe.

In Feb 2000, they confessed that I was right, that I was indeed being kept on only to help with Y2K, which was now over and they no longer needed me. But they felt so guilty about deceiving me, that they offered me a choice of 6 weeks severance, or 12 weeks working with generous time off to go on interviews. I took the second option, but ended up finding a new job after 8 weeks, and they paid the last four weeks at half-pay.

I felt they were extremely upright and generous about this whole thing. They gave me much more than they legally had to.

20

what missbunny said.
A lot of discussion will go on after the interview about good candidates. They will appreciate that you saved them the time by keeping them informed.