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Ask HN: My boss doesn't think I'm doing good work, how to proceed?

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Re: Ask HN: My boss doesn't think I'm doing good work, how to proceed?

#301

Post by dazeandconfuse »

r00fus wrote: post #212
dazeandconfuse wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks. I definitely will take that into consideration in the future. I'm not sure if it would have helped in this specific case but I can definitely think of other situations at work where taking your advice would have helped me.

The 'bother the professor' part is key. With new teammates, I want them to reach out if they're on a project I'm leading. If things look like they're going well - then it's great to get positive feedback. If not, better to change direction early (lost work due to changing requirements). Do you have a weekly 1:1 with your manager?

No, I don't, is this something you think it'd make sense for me to request?

Re: Ask HN: My boss doesn't think I'm doing good work, how to proceed?

#302

Post by resonious »

mushufasa wrote: post #24

> Part of the reason it had taken so long is because I put a substantial amount of work into a part of the project that's no longer necessary due to changing requirements, which I don't think I could have forseen. One of the things that I've experienced with new grad junior devs is that there's an adjustment needed to change from academic working to business working. In academia, usually the professor gives an assign…

I agree 100% that learning from the people around you is paramount.

But I disagree with the idea that you can't/shouldn't do that in an academic setting. During my undergrad, a lot of the more driven students were always bothering the professors for help. Those students often brought back gold nuggets of information while working on a team with them. It made me regret not doing so more myself.

Though to be fair, the assignment doesn't really change in academia - that's true. Those students aren't asking the professor if the requirements changed; they're bouncing ideas, and asking for further explanation.

Re: Ask HN: My boss doesn't think I'm doing good work, how to proceed?

#303

Post by alsetmusic »

This may not be the case where you are, but it illustrates the things that you can't see that could color interactions.

I was hired into a highly prestigious team. My manager always seemed gruff; I worried that he regretted hiring me.

About eight months in, he had back surgery for a slipped disc. Suddenly, he was fun, joking, smiles. I realized that all the time before, he had been in pain.

Later, a friend in HR broke the rules and showed me the notes from my interviews. My manager had said something like, "He didn't understand how X works, but after I explained it to him, he understood how to solve the problem." And this exact quote: "We should try to hire him for my team." I felt such pride.

When I later had a medical crisis, he turned out to be very empathetic. "Take care of you. We'll be here when you get back," or something along those lines. This was the guy I thought hated me.

Re: Ask HN: My boss doesn't think I'm doing good work, how to proceed?

#304

Post by alsetmusic »

alfor wrote: post #296
mushufasa wrote: post #24

> Part of the reason it had taken so long is because I put a substantial amount of work into a part of the project that's no longer necessary due to changing requirements, which I don't think I could have forseen. One of the things that I've experienced with new grad junior devs is that there's an adjustment needed to change from academic working to business working. In academia, usually the professor gives an assign…

Definitely agree, I would say, if you think about something we might have fallen short (likely) go ahead and say it, the abilities to see your own shortcoming is gold for a manager. They should be expecting rough edges with a junior dev, but if you are willing to talk about your weakness real or imagined you will grow fast.

> if you are willing to talk about your weakness real or imagined you will grow fast.

Similarly, owning up to mistakes (rather than making excuses) is gold. It wins respect and trust when you really weren't at fault.

Re: Ask HN: My boss doesn't think I'm doing good work, how to proceed?

#305

Post by [deleted] »

busterarm wrote: post #284
lmeyerov wrote: post #211

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A project being late involving a junior dev due to architectural and scoping issues is probably not because of the junior dev but the tech lead and product/project manager. The junior dev is still at risk in practice because the team is at risk and their manager can use them for the blame game. In this scenario, I'd work through a 5-whys for figuring out why the multiple reasons why the "you're effectively on warning…

I wanted to post in this thread saying all of these above things but you put everything I was feeling into words perfectly. I think this is the most accurate and actionable advice in the thread.

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: My boss doesn't think I'm doing good work, how to proceed?

#306

Post by desmosxxx »

kowlo wrote: post #165

I will preface my comment by saying I'm a little later in my career, and consider myself a little more cynical than average. The following is only useful in the company of other comments to offer a more balanced perspective... I would have found it entirely unacceptable, and my notice would have been on the table within the hour. I've handed in my notice for less. That kind of behaviour from leadership/management is…

I'd definitely be looking for other options. If the language is true, it's definitely inappropriate to be getting that kind of feedback this late in the project without a more friendly warning. Especially if I had put in the work / was capable.

My hunch is the words were more likely meant for OPs manager and the skip boss is just an ass. I'd be suspect of the manager, bit either way it seems ruined and I'd be looking at an exit.

Re: Ask HN: My boss doesn't think I'm doing good work, how to proceed?

#307

Post by blablabla123 »

I'd spend some time browsing through the ticket system and understand how colleagues handle tickets (duration, discussion section, difficulty of ticket). Also I'd check the code with a linter. So you can confidently say how you compare. Next time someone complains you can prove the opposite. Also I recommend sticking to process, commenting tickets as needed, marking them as blocked timely and generally making sure you're aligned with the PO/PM during each sprint.

Re: Ask HN: My boss doesn't think I'm doing good work, how to proceed?

#308

Post by graderjs »

I'm not expert on your situation and commend you for posting here. Not sure how useful any of this will be (or any of any of the comments will be) because basically nobody knows you or your team and everyone brings their own perspective and experience--and you'll have to figure this all out on your own--I mean, it is your career, right? This may sound an obvious caveat but I think it's important--because there's always gonna be people eager to give you advice, simply as a way to validate their own experience--even when it doesn't apply to you. But I'm sure you know that already.

I'll just try to offer some general meta comments that got prompted for me while reading your post.

- Your manager may feel she doesn't know how to have a difficult conversation with you (for whatever reason) and may have deliberately slyly ducked out of the meeting under the pretext of fighting a fire to let her boss do the heavy lifting of that conversation. Lest this despair you, it's not a bad reflection on you that your manager may find it hard to be critical--it's just about her, but if that's the case, you could always help her out by giving her lots of opportunities to share where she's up to with your performance.

- Maybe you are seen as a rising star and are being 'groomed' eventually for some sort of leadership (hey, sometimes in tech companies things move fast). So the boss is giving you some pressure and criticism to see how you're going to handle it. It's not the content in that case that's important, it's the fact of its existence, and what you do about it. Maybe you're seen as someone who could report higher, so you're being given a meeting that mocks that up.

-

Re: Ask HN: My boss doesn't think I'm doing good work, how to proceed?

#309

Post by wanderingmind »

pc86 wrote: post #281
OnlyMortal wrote: post #261

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If your a senior dev it’s part of your role to help the junior ones out. You should cultivate that behaviour as it brings up the quality of your colleagues and builds work relationships.

I draw a corollary to how graduate medical education works. You go into residency a fresh doctor with zero applicable skills. You may not even be CPR certified, but you're an MD/DO, and you've matched into a residency. You know less about actually helping people than a nurse who's been on the job for a month. You spend the next 3-7 years working 80-100 hours a week learning your chosen specialty. You become an absolu…

And yet a junior dev who LCd for a few months will get paid way more than a MD in residency. It might be interesting to see if the quality of people (measured with IQ) or some other simple metrics who pursue medicine relative to other fields have gone down over the past decade.

Re: Ask HN: My boss doesn't think I'm doing good work, how to proceed?

#310

Post by thegrimmest »

pc86 wrote: post #281
OnlyMortal wrote: post #261

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If your a senior dev it’s part of your role to help the junior ones out. You should cultivate that behaviour as it brings up the quality of your colleagues and builds work relationships.

I draw a corollary to how graduate medical education works. You go into residency a fresh doctor with zero applicable skills. You may not even be CPR certified, but you're an MD/DO, and you've matched into a residency. You know less about actually helping people than a nurse who's been on the job for a month. You spend the next 3-7 years working 80-100 hours a week learning your chosen specialty. You become an absolu…

What if you just want to write software and not be responsible for mentorship? Why do capable individual contributors always have to be roped into leadership?
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