Reaching out to company whose offer I declined a few weeks into new job?
A couple months ago, I was interviewing for a new job. I got offers from Company A and Company B.
Company A: $145k $10k sign on 3 days a week in office Commute: 1 hour from home Title: Lead Software Engineer
Company B Offer: $150k 5 days a week in office Commute: 35 minutes from home Title: Principal Software Engineer
I accepted Company A's offer because Company B's offer came after I already accepted Company A's offer, and I didn't want to renege on my acceptance, and Company A is a more renowned brand.
However I've been working at Company A for a few weeks and I really don't like it. The commute is awful for one, and I have to drop off and pick up my child from preschool every day which adds to the commute (wife works long hours as a medical resident and isnt able to do drop-off or pickups). Also this is my 1st time as a team lead and away from coding. Instead of spending my time coding, I am spending most of my day talking about budgets, estimating hours and headcount, and planning activity milestones, which has been dreadfully boring. I wanted to try a team lead role to help my career, but I'm beginning to realize it's not for me. Also the one software developer I was going to lead is leaving the group for another internal role. Also they use an awful development tool from the 80s to autogenerate their software.
When I checked Company B, the position I applied to is still posted, and I ended things cordially with that recruiter, who said she'd love to stay connected regarding future opportunities.
Should I stick it out for 6 months to a year at Company A? Or should I leave now? My thought is if I leave now, I can leave it off my resume entirely and it'll look like I went straight from my old company to Company B.
Posted Aug 5, 2025, 10:17 PM UTC