Is it ok to interview with other companies after accepting a signed offer with little acceptance time

Question

I recently received a job offer from Company A that only gave me the weekend to accept. When I asked for more time to think about, the company (for reasons) firmly said I had to accept by Monday. I can do good work at this company but there are a few red flags (such as the short time to accept) that make me wary.

However, I have reached the final interview stage at Company B, which I was excited about but I am still learning about them. I would still like to interview, but because of the short time to decide on the other job, there is no way I can have them speed up the process.

I either have to accept Company A's offer and figure out how to tell Company B (whether before the interview or during their offer stage if I reach it because they will find out at some point) or reject it and risk not having either job.

So now I am confused how to handle this. I've gotten advice to accept it and tell Company B, accept it and don't tell Company B, and just reject it and I'll find another job eventually. Any advice?

Answer 1

You have correctly identified your 3 options

1. Accept A and decline B ("sorry, I accepted a different offer")
2. Decline A and put all your effort into B (and maybe C, D, E as well). If things go sideways with B and you can always go back to A and ask if they reopen the offer. They may, they may not.
3. Accept A but keep pursuing B anyway. If you get a good offer from B jump ship.

Options 1) and 2) are "clean". You act with full integrity and it's perfectly normal and acceptable to decline an offer or discontinue a hiring process.

Option 3) is a bit more tricky. It's often ethically frowned upon since it can be viewed as going back on your promise. You can argue that it's justifiable since company A gives you only a very small acceptance window (which indeed unusually short). It will ding your reputation especially at company A.

Whether there are legal consequences as well depends on the specifics of your contract and on local labor law, but that would be unlikely. Many countries have special provisions to easily end employment early in the game if things don't work out.

All three options have their pros and cons. There is no clear winner, you just have to make a call here.

Answer 2

Another option is to just do the interview whether you accepted the offer or not. There's no need to tell anyone anything. Even if you have a contract you'll be in a probation period usually.