AITA for not correcting my friend’s answers and costing them their dream job?

A Reddit user shared their experience of landing a highly competitive law internship in London, where only a small percentage of candidates earn a permanent contract. During this internship, they shared office space with a fellow candidate named Sam, who asked for feedback on his work for an assessed task.

Knowing the competitiveness of the role, the user opted not to correct Sam’s glaring error, which ultimately contributed to him not securing a spot. Now, they feel conflicted about whether they should have helped him, potentially at their own expense. Read the full story below to learn more.

‘ AITA for not correcting my friend’s answers and costing them their dream job?’

Here in the UK (and probably like most other places), entering the legal profession is extremely competitive. Most elite law firms in London will receive 5,000 or so applications every year and only the most serious candidates tend to apply.

All in all, your odds of getting a training contract (the route to qualifying as a solicitor) are around 2%. To make it even more complicated, many firms run “vacation schemes”, which are effectively two week paid internships where you experience life at the firm and their departments, complete assessed tasks and likely an interview.

If you do well throughout the scheme, you may land yourself a training contract. After three years of applying, I managed to secure a vacation scheme this summer at one of the most prestigious firms in London. I was overjoyed and it felt like a culmination of all my hard work. I knew it would be competitive and for the 20 that got a spot, the firm only had 8 training contract spots.

I ended up sharing an office with another student on the scheme, who I’ll call Sam. Sam was a nice guy and I got on well with him, and he explained how much securing a TC meant to him as well. One of the assessed tasks we had to complete was effectively to test attention to detail, and we were advised that this task was important.

Sam asked me to check through his work to see if I agreed before he submitted, and I noticed he had made a glaring error and had chosen the wrong option by not reading the footnote correctly. I thought about correcting him, but then I thought about how competitive it is and the fact it was ultimately his work.

I told him it looked good and he submitted it. We finished the scheme about two months or so ago. I ended up getting an offer, and it was one of the best days of my life. Sadly, Sam did not, and he told me how devastated he was about having to do the process all over again.

When he received his feedback call, he was told he excelled in many areas, but scored poorly in the assessed task. I feel incredibly guilty about this and feel I should have corrected him, especially as he said it was his dream firm. However, I also know that it could have been him that got the spot instead of me.. AITA for not correcting him?

Here’s what the community had to contribute:

Cultural_Section_862 −  YTA your response when he asked should have been something like “look I like you but this a competitive internship and they are trying to assess your attention to detail, not your ability to obtain a proofreader.

I certainly hope we’re both able to obtain one of the 8 positions, just take your time and read the instructions carefully, I’m sure you’ll do great”  but hindsight is 20/20, since you did accept to review it, found an error *then lied about it* YTA

Fantastic-Sea-3462 −  YTA for saying you would check over his work and then not doing it, but Sam for sure made mistakes in this too. You were advised the task was important. It’s a smart move to ask someone to check over your work for a very important task.

Not as smart to ask your competition to do it. At the end of the day, you’re correct in saying it could have been him taking your spot. Yeah, you were an a**hole in that one instance. It doesn’t make you an awful person.

Far-Season-695 −  YTA but it sounds like you are made for your profession

dfjdejulio −  YTA, not for failing to correct him, but for making him think you would. When he asked you to, the right thing to do would have been to say “I can’t do that, sorry”. If you’d done that, he might have rechecked it again on his own and caught it, no?

[Reddit User] −  YTA. If you “don’t want to help your (potential) competitors,” that’s fine, but you should have just been up front about that or said something like, “Sorry, I’m not here to do *your* work for you.” Simply “not helping” someone and actively sabotaging them are very different.

Secret-Sample1683 −  YTA. Yup, you’re a lawyer.

SpaceyScribe −  You lied. For your own benefit. A**hole move. Next time just say, “Sorry, I want us both to succeed, but considering the circumstances I don’t feel comfortable helping on this task.”. YTA.

mlc885 −  YTA – If you weren’t okay with looking over his work you needed to say that. Saying you will and then lying by not mentioning an error you noticed was a mean thing to do.

AdAccomplished6870 −  You were competitors, you had no obligation to help him. However, the fact that you acted as if you were looking at his work in good faith, rather than tell him that you didn’t feel it was appropriate, then lied to him makes YTA, and shows that you are cold, deceitful, and machiavellian.

I would have had no issue if you had just said ‘Look, this is a test of our own work, and honestly we are vying for the same spot, I don’t think I can help you here’. But what you did was dirty.

alien_overlord_1001 −  YTA. In this situation, he was a direct competitor for a small number of positions – you should absolutely not have agreed to check his work on anything. You should have said no, as you are in competition, and you don’t want to give him any advantage. That was the only ethical option.
He is a bit of an i**ot for asking…..and hopefully he has learned this lesson.

Do you think the Redditor was justified in not correcting their peer in a competitive environment, or should they have acted more supportively, even if it risked their own chances? How would you approach a similar moral dilemma in a high-stakes situation? Share your thoughts below!