r/cscareerquestionsCAD • u/semi-finalist2022 • Sep 12 '26
Early Career Can I leave my internship on my first day because I've found something better elsewhere ?
Hello,
I hope you guys are doing well. I recently graduated from my undergrad degree and was able to land 2 internship offers with the goal of transitioning FT with the company (both of them said it's possible)
Background:
I did my undergrad focusing on AI (AI agents, LLMs, NLP etc...). I did lots of research in the field and even got one publication at a top-tier conference.
Company A:
- Big/mid-size video game company. They just opened their offices in Canada. 3/5 on Glassdoor (comp seems decent but people are complaining about layoffs mostly). The role is basic SWE with the usage of AI coding tools (vibe coding ig) which is something that I'm not really passionate about. The focus of the job is shipping stuff to users/internal teams so i guess i could actually build some nice things and get in some cool metrics. 30$/h
Company B:
- New unicorn in domain that really interests me. Role seems like basic SWE too. Comp not discussed yet.
I'm really interested in company B. Their HR told me today (friday 11th sept) that they're interested in moving forward with me and giving me an offer on monday. The issue is that I already signed the contract with company A a couple of weeks before and I'm about to start this monday lol so I already did my onboarding. Should I quit ? How can I quit without getting hit by a lawsuit haha.
What do you guys think ? I'm planning to do a Msc then PhD in 3-4 years and I believe experience at company B would be really helpful since they collaborate with academia and work on some really interesting stuff that's within tech tho not in AI.
Thank you guys for reading all of this haha
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u/Emotional-Buy1932 Sep 12 '26
I am a bit confused. You say you are goinna be doing basic SWE in both roles but somehow because company B is in an "interesting domain", that will help you with graduate school. How so if both roles are still basic SWE?
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u/semi-finalist2022 Sep 13 '26
Because company B has lots of ties with academia and I'm expected in the role to be comfortable with scientific code
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u/Usual_Surround_9251 Sep 12 '26
Hey sorry little bit unrelated but have you found the internship after the graduation ? With the goal of converting to FT ?
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u/semi-finalist2022 Sep 13 '26
I applied to the internship and then HR told me that they have headcount and are open to hiring me FT after the internship
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u/Usual_Surround_9251 Sep 13 '26
Okay but were you applying while you were in school or did you graduate and then applied for an internship?
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u/semi-finalist2022 Sep 13 '26
yeah i was still in school when i applied and did the interviews. but i'll be doing the internship as a new grad
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u/ilpikachu 28d ago
just dip it's an internship company doesn't care, even at fanng if you dip it's whatever interns are slower and it's tbh more hassle to have them
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u/blueberrybub Sep 12 '26
Companies lay you off without a second thought. Renege and be honest but just know you'll be burning bridges with that company