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Having an offer does not guarantee having a job

By Lawrence B. Ebert, Esq.

The Jobfinder section of the Newark Star-Ledger has an article titled "Job Insecurity" which begins

Grandmothers always have advised not to count your chickens until they hatch. In today's economy, the wise among us have a new pearl of wisdom: don't assume you have a job just because you received a job offer.

Within the story is the text:

In most states, employment is considered "at will." That means an employer can terminate employment with even a prospective employee for any reason that is not discriminatory and does not violate public policy.

One Steven Rothberg said of organizations withdrawing offers: "Those organizations...become pariahs for years afterwards."

IPBiz notes that in the early 1990's, a certain well-known (and still existent) patent law firm in New York City withdrew, at the last moment, its offers for ALL of its summer associates. IPBiz sees no mention of this specific event on the internet. There is an oblique comment on kuznets:

The recession of the early 1990's has cast some of this unraveling in a new light. In 1991 there were firms which, at the last moment, withdrew offers which had been accepted more than a year in advance of when employment was to begin (Ken Myers, 1991).

Myers, Ken, "Latest on the Recession Front: Firms Rescind Offers to Students," National Law Journal, June 24, 1991, 2(?). [which article does NOT discuss the particular patent firm event.]

Similarly, at the time of Exxon Corporate Research's 50% cutback of Ph.D.'s in 1986, there was basically no discussion in the media.

Full post as published by IPBiz on August 02, 2008 (boomark / email).