How bad is it to turn down an internal offer after already accepting it?
I work as a mid level software engineer at a large UK bank and recently accepted an internal transfer to another engineering team.
Since accepting, another internal opportunity I’d previously considered has become available again, and I’m now seriously considering taking that instead.
Very broadly, the two roles are:
Role A: backend engineering around payments. Mostly Java, Kafka/event driven systems, validation/integration work and services that sit around payment processing. It sounds technically solid and fairly infrastructure/backend focused.
Role B: backend engineering in customer services/operations, also involving Java, but with the opportunity to work on GenAI/agentic use cases, automating parts of customer servicing and integrating AI capabilities into existing systems. The team seem more relaxed and working set up could also suit my personal circumstances a bit better.
Both are similar in level and compensation, so this isn’t really about money.
My concern is that I’ve already formally accepted Role A and the team is expecting me to join shortly.
How damaging is it reputationally to pull out of an internal move at this stage?
Would you expect this to burn the bridge mainly with that particular manager/team, or can something like this follow you around internally and affect future opportunities years down the line ?