I'm already doing a frontend swe internship at a pretty big company so I don't really care that much about clout/prestige/pay, I just want to gain really meaningful experiences and ideally some backend or even systems programming since that has become an interest for me. I'm leaning towards flexport because they seem to have a pretty modern stack and also really interesting and new problems. They seem to be at the forefront of what they're doing so that's good news. However, teradata seems to offer me the chance to go even deeper into the backend and do more system level stuff compared to flexport's higher level stack(I think?). Also, teradata seems to be making a move to the cloud as their stock jumped 2x recently. Lastly, my professor recommended me to teradata and I've been working with the recruiter for a while and they've been so flexible and accommodating to me. I'd feel pretty guilty if I had to turn them down. Regardless though, I still want to do what's best for me career so if anyone has had experiences interning or even working full time at either of these two companies and can share some info about the swe culture that'd be cool! Also, flexport is in chicago and teradata is in san diego.
My only piece of advice is not to let guilt or perceived kinship with the recruiter have any weight on the decision. It’s their job and they’ll hold no hard feelings if you don’t go with them — believe me they’ve dealt with far worse