One Good Job Deserves Another

I have this hilarious image in my head of a BofA hiring manager reading an "I've accepted a job elsewhere" letter, and a single tear running down his cheek... That being said, there's a general business rule that definitely applies here: If it's not on paper, it never happened. That being said, the "right" thing to do is to contact BofA and tell them, "I have accepted another job offer." That's all that needs to be done.

I agree with Kwantsar if you sub equity for fixed income. I'm always impressed with the fixed income staff.

Its dead - but notice I said Junior Equity Sales. Not Equity Sales. A junior equity salespersons job is to set up meetings and send out reports. Also I think you overstate the quality of most equity sales guys - by a huge margin actually. Of course there are a few salesmen who are fantastic resources. I will tell you something I absolutely am sure of - a lot of very good buy-side shops would hire an ex-MC before they would hire a ex-Sales guy for an investment role.

JPD-- This thread is dead now, and I've never worked in equity sales, but I think you're way off-base. The best equity salesmen understand everything that their bank's research department has produced, and they can explain the equity story (whether it's valuation, catalyst, growth, etc.) to the buyside and drive revenue for the bank. You may think the job sucks, but the best equity salesmen in the world aren't "sales guys," they are analysts in salesmen's clothing. I'd also bet that the 90th percentile of equity sales owns twice as much as the 90th percentile of MCs. He's not turning BofA down for McKinsey, after all. In other words, your point is valid, but it's not as strong as you are making it out to be.

Believe me if your friend thinks he may at some point want to do anything other then equity sales taking Bain job even at the expense of pissing off some salesguy is worthwhile. If I saw a guy's resume that said equity sales internship, Bain as first post-MBA job I wouldn't really care if the equity sales guys bad mouthed him. To be honest though junior equity salesman is on my list of worst job in the world so I'm biased.

I think you should save this thread and come back to it when both you are your friend are about ten years older. Not to minimize your housemate's situation, reflexed, but this reminded me of my first job. My father forced me to get a job at McDonalds a month before I was leaving to go to college. I ruminated the entire time about telling them I would be leaving so soon after starting. When I finally had to go I was shocked at how non-plused the manager was when I told him.

If "cash equity sales" is anything like "equity sales," your housemate is in the process of turning down 55-hour weeks for 85-hour weeks. I'm guessing that your roommate is an MBA student, and I don't think that many posters here understand that (while of course BofA won't shed a tear) what housemate is doing might be a big deal. It is not common practice to intern, take the full-time offer, and then renege. Career Services at his school (though powerless) will be a pain in the ass, dude will never be able to work for BofA again, and if he decides to go back into research, or sales, or trading, there's a nonzero risk that whoever he interviews with at another bank will either conclude that his internship didn't work out, or call his MBA classmate (who's now a VP or MD at BofA) and check his references, at which time he'll be pegged as an untrustworthy. Wall Street is a smaller place than it seems, and the world of equity sales isn't nearly as big as the world of investment bankers. All I'm saying is that your buddy's gotta do what he's gotta do, quickly and honestly. Though I don't doubt that he's doing the right thing, I wouldn't pretend that such a maneuver is guaranteed to have no consequences.

Oh, man. Judging from what I've seen of Bain's corporate library, if your roomie isn't willing to Step Up, Bain will eat him alive. But, yeah, BoA has been of a mad hiring streak of late and they will not miss him if he calls up with a simple "Sorry, I've been offered a job elsewhere." If he can make it through the first year, he'll be much better off with some Bain-ing than some BoA-ing on his resume.

In the bad times, the banks will lay you off. In the good times, you lay the banks off.