Opportunism

I feel like being opportunistic is in my nature and growing up as a son of two immigrants I was taught from an early age that America is the land of opportunity. My parents have told me that “the wheel that squeaks the loudest gets the oil.” I take this to mean that if you want something that you have to be proactive about it and take advantage of every opportunity that is at hand. I was never really taught to let a good opportunity slide by. I do however know one of my friends who passed up on a very high paying job offer that I would never be able to do. One of my old friends in Chemical Engineering passed on an offer from ExxonMobil which is the company that almost every Chemical Engineering major tries to work for. That is because most of ExxonMobil’s locations are in big cities and pay their chemical engineers the highest starting salary. When my friend got this offer he had no other offers at the time and yet he still declined the offer. Many of us were shocked that he declined but the end outcome for my friend worked out very well and it was because he was patient.

Patience for my friend played a key role because after a month he had several different offers from other companies. Though the companies paid slightly less than Exxon there were other benefits that Exon did not have. Some of the other companies that gave my friend offers were smaller and had more room for moving up in management faster. Also, a lot of the other companies that gave him offers were not in the oil industry and the company he accepted to work for full time is in the renewable energy industry. This could be and an indicator that my friend wanted to pursue a career that was more in line with his moral compass. Since Exxon is viewed as more and an unethical company I feel like my friend would have not been happy in that position because the company’s values did not align with his values. He viewed himself as more ethical than the company and would have probably been miserable knowing that he would be working for a company that was unethical.

My friend accepting another position avoided adverse selection because Exxon had the view in their mind that he would be a good fit for their company. On the other hand, my friend viewed himself as being unhappy in the job. By accepting another offer, he avoided the inefficiency that would have been created since other sides have different information. This overall saves Exxon from the possible transaction costs occurred because they viewed him as a good fit even though he did not view them as a good fit for him. Though Exxon might have been disappointed that he did not accept their offer, they were saved from possible risks and costs from not knowing the other side of information.

I believe my friend wanted to say no early and not renege the offer to Exxon so he would not burn any bridges just in case he decided he wanted to work the in the future. By doing this he avoids the moral hazards that could have possibly occurred if he were to say yes to the offer and work for Exxon. If he worked at Exxon he would probably be less passionate about his jobs because he did not have the same values as the company. Therefore, Exxon takes on more risk by hiring him because he might either quite pretty soon and they would have to find someone to replace him or he might not have been as productive as someone else that could have started in that position. By avoiding that moral hazard, my friend prevents transaction costs incurred by him as well as the company from future possible transitions to another company later down the road.