Ask HN: Reneging Accepted Internship for Better Offer

[summerthrowaway]

Context:

A couple months ago I accepted an internship for this summer at a large, but unknown enterprise company.

The pay is fine, but the work is pretty irrelevant for the job market; Proprietary software, proprietary languages that only a few old companies use today and I'd be working on internal tools. I have no interest in working there as a full-time employee.

I got the job after being referred by a friend who is working there this summer.

The Dilemma:

I recently got an offer out of the blue from a previous internship boss who moved to a new company. The pay is 50% higher and the tech is modern and relevant. I'd also be working on production software and meaningful problems.

I am concerned that if I accept this new job, it could negatively affect my career as reneging would leave a black mark and they have already finished hiring.

Is it worth it to stay at the first job that is less relevant and interesting to prevent burning bridges?

Should I worry about burning bridges if I don't expect work with the 1st company's people anywhere else?

(US)

EDIT: note, both internships don't start until June

[partisan]

I think you are OK to cancel at this point without fear of retribution. The tech industry is fairly large. You won't find doors locked to you. In fact, you did so well that your previous employer thought of you for another internship. That's a huge win.

The minimum requirement is that you reneg as early as possible, do so politely and professionally, and finally, don't think about it thereafter. Your career is ahead of you.

[idunno246]

Ive reneged on full time offers. There are no blacklists as long as you do it respectfully and as early as possible. I still get recruiting emails from them. It’s an employees market right now so this happens, especially at a large company nobody will know or care

[laurentl]

This, plus a few other comments from the thread. Candidates get better offer and renege all the time; it sucks but that’s business, most hiring managers will suck it up. You’re young, you have your entire career in front of you, now’s the best time to experiment and to figure out what motivates you. From the sound of it, you’re not likely to find it in the first internship (you never know... but dragging your feet into a job is not the best way to start). Plus: it’s an internship; unless the company is a very early start-up running on interns and happy pills they’ll be fine without you. The only thing that would give me pause in your situation is whether it could have a negative impact on the friend that referred you.

[arjunvpaul]

Do whats good for your career and what makes you happy. Because if its not good for your career and you are not happy, everybody loses (company 1, company 2 & you)

[mindhash]

If I understand correctly, you got internship vs job decision to make. I would choose job for sure.

Secondly its best to exit the offer right now than after joining. that puts company in more trouble, since their investment goes up once you join.

From your message, it looks like you are quite excited with the new offer. It will be best if you confront this sooner and go where your heart is.

[svennek]

I think the relevant question is more, is it morally defensible to quit a (perfectly suitable) internship, due to the grass being greener somewhere else?

The company now counts on you being there, and most like have started planning, executing and incurring expenses...

Personally, I think no! I would never go back on a promise to show up. Think about it the other way, how would you feel should the company dump you because they found a better candidate? (I know that the company most likely is unable to do that, but companies just a bunch of people, and getting dumped sucks no matter the setting).

And how knows if you later internship is actually better?

I can think of at least a couple of interesting things, that internship will offer you, that the "better one" will not:

- most likely work with people who have actually worked on the same codebase for a decade or more.. that gives a different perspective that then rushed "consumerism" of modern devs (oh, that legacycode is already four weeks old, lets scrap it and reimplement it :)

- It will most likely be a very balanced place to work (senior as in "more experienced" working in enterprise world usually have better working conditions that cool upstarts - and often better pay too, not for your internship though)

- It might surprise you how little of the new hype-driven development is actually new.. That might again change your perspective!

- You might end up liking it there and have a job for the next decade. Bouncing jobs every 6 months due to running out of funds and not getting paid gets old really quickly :)

Personally I work both with newish backend technology (I tend to stay 3-5 years behind on purpose to skip learning stuff that is dead within 24 months). But I regularly work on a three decade old system written in an equally old language (that most people have never heard of), and it is not as bad as others expect...

[imauld]

> is it morally defensible to quit a (perfectly suitable) internship, due to the grass being greener somewhere else?

Yes, it is. If that company decided tomorrow they needed one less intern they wouldn't hesitate to cut OP or another intern loose.

This is a business transaction. OP is exchanging their time for money and in return the employer is hoping to extract more value from the employee than they put in. If either side of that transaction feels they aren't getting the value they want from the arrangement it's in that parties best interest to move on. The OP hasn't started working there yet and isn't scheduled to start until June, that is plenty of time to find a replacement. There is no shortage of capable CS students in the world.

Additionally if the OP just isn't interested in the work it's not really in anyone's interest to have them there. OP shouldn't be stuck working at a place they aren't really motivated to just because of the timing of the offer. I'm sure any manager would prefer to have an interested and engaged intern rather than just going through the motions.

[new_hackers]

Do you have a time limit in which you need to complete your internship (for instance I did a 9 month internship before my final year of college).

Here is the deal: you are an intern. You probably aren’t instrumental to their operations. I say go for your new gig if it’s a guaranteed hire. That’s capitalism. Don’t try to negotiate with your current company. And don’t burn bridges (you arent). Just simply say you have another opportunity you are going to pursue, and submit your 2 week resignation. Thank your current company for their offer and time (since in reality you were probably costing them money). Best of luck!

[summerthrowaway]

The internships aren't required for school and I didn't get them through the school's career center.

I also updated the post that I haven't actually started working at the internship yet.

Thanks for your feedback.