Two weeks ago, a small company set up an interview and scheduled it for a certain time tomorrow.
Late last week, a very competitive company asked whether I'd be interested in interviewing, and I let them know the general times I would be available for the next few weeks. This morning, they send me an email about having the interview tomorrow at the same time as the small company.
Who should I have rescheduled?
This competitive company probably has hundreds of other applicants for this position, and if the first thing that the interviewer has to do with me is rescheduling an interview, I fear that I will not be off to a great start. Technically, I did specify that I am usually available for tomorrow's time. Wanting to keep my availability simple, I didn't bother mentioning a time that was so soon that wouldn't work. I didn't realize that they would rush to have the interview a few business days later (given that I gave them nearly a month of available times).
I feel that the right thing to do is ask to reschedule the competitive company, because I promised the small company first. Additionally, the email from the competitive company does say to let them know whether the time won't work (but will they still not like me as much if I do change it?).
On the other hand, I'm pretty sure the small company does not have more than a few other interviewees, so it would be less overhead for them to reschedule.
*While this probably applies to full-timers, this is for an internship.