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I have the strong possibility that I may be offered 2 jobs at once. One is with a large company, A and another is with a consulting company, B, in city, C1 that consults to A. There is a high chance that an offer will be received from A before B responds to me. Take note that A have paid considerable travel costs to me during the interviewing process in city, C2.

In this scenario I plan to accept A's offer, but I prefer B's offer to consult to A more. B is obviously a consulting role and I would get to consult to A by contract and other companies in the future.

In this scenario is it considered rude to turn down A's offer even after accepting?

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  • Are you talking about accepting an offer from A and then rescinding the acceptance when an offer comes through from B? Or just turning down the offer so that you can consult to A via B?
    – thursdaysgeek
    Commented Jan 17, 2014 at 22:42
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    Don't accept right away. Get time to "sleep on it", even if only a few days. Then see if offer from B comes through. Then no one gets hurt, and you get the position you want.
    – CDspace
    Commented Jan 17, 2014 at 23:17
  • Travel costs are not "considerable" unless it was overseas travel.
    – kevin cline
    Commented Jun 4, 2015 at 2:54

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This is probably less about being "rude" than about your relationship with company A and the potential impact on your career. Accepting an offer and then not showing up for work is likely to damage this relationship. In their eyes you have made a commitment but didn't follow through. As a result company A has potentially incurred damage: they may have turned down other viable candidates, they may have committed to projects based on the new head count and they have to restart the candidate search.

If you end up at B and show up as consultant for A it's entirely possible that A will say: "we have no interest in working with this guy/girl, he/she has let us down before and we don't trust her/him". This could put you in a very awkward position for your new job at B.

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    company A refusing you as a consultant is quite likely. Everyone in the hiring chain will have just seen your name and be grumpy at you pulling out.
    – Móż
    Commented Jan 18, 2014 at 0:31
  • If it's a large company, there's a good chance that a) You won't be working with anyone who was in the hiring chain b) They won't remember you, they see dozens of people, and c) They won't care - if you were good enough to be hired, you're good enough to be a consultant... mid level managers are more concerned with results than anything, and if you can do the job you should be fine.
    – Jon Story
    Commented Nov 28, 2014 at 16:34

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