Life Changing Decisions Suck

Eyes squinting and with a yawn I clicked on “Send/Receive” on outlook and to my surprise, a certain email message appeared that I had been waiting for 2 weeks ago – an update on a job interview. I had a feeling the five interviews had gone well since I did get a “wow” and a “good answer” a couple of times from the managers – and this email confirmed it. “The results of your interviews were very positive”, everything sounds good so far; a dream job, secure environment, awesome metropolitan area, high advancement opportunities and an opportunity to obtain my Masters in a prestigious University. Just one tiny little problem – they can’t extend job offers for lack of a budget at this time and plan to do so in February. Now for the huge problem – I already accepted an offer with another company. The plan had been to have both offers on the table a week before the first one required an answer – that way I had a holiday break to decide with the help of my family and friends. That never happened and a response wasn’t even received. Dissapointed and nervous, I accepted the job offer that I had received in November since it was the only one extended to me. I won’t start in either place untill after I graduate and the six months time is what’s making me think of responding to this company and asking them to consider me for the job. I know that’s the selfish thing to do and probably won’t be favorable for the University I’m reprasenting, but I need to look after my career future first. It also helps that the job offer letter states “Your employment relationship with [company name] will be on an at-will basis, which means either you or [company name] will be free to terminate your employment relationship at any time for any reason”. I realize they included that in there for their personal advantage, but it seems as my excuse to seek an alternative choice. I know people apply for jobs with other companies while still being employed, but this situation is a little different – right? Is persuing this other job the right thing to do for me at this time?