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He'll assign projects to me. Small stuff, simple stuff. I'll get it done and it may not have been the best way to do it but I figured it out and did it the best way I knew how at the time and it doesn't break anything. So again, not perfect but what code is?

Yet despite that, soon after I finish instead of using my code he'll write his own code instead and that goes into production. It's beginning to feel like nothing I do matters. Some feedback on my code would be nice but I don't even get that. He'll just come over to my desk and tell me about the new feature he has implemented. Doesn't even explain how he did it. And I'm left thinking, "Okay why did I just spend 'x' amount of time doing this if you ultimately was just going to do it yourself"?

I want to talk to him about this but I have no idea as to how to frame it without sounding...jealous(?), defensive(?), or annoyed(?). I'm not even entirely sure how I feel but it's not a good feeling. It's hard to take ownership over something when it just gets "overridden" and there is no feedback for better ways you could have done XYZ.

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  • this post is rather hard to read (wall of text). Would you mind editing it into a better shape?
    – gnat
    Feb 1, 2017 at 9:45
  • I would request code reviews from him periodically while you're working on a project. Ask for guidance. See if he'd be willing to pair program with you.
    – Charles D Pantoga
    Feb 1, 2017 at 18:42
  • Communication is key. I would also be proactive and review his code that he implements to see the difference in his solution to yours
    – jkdba
    Feb 15, 2017 at 0:46

3 Answers 3

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I had the same thing happen to me at my first internship. I would be asked to write a library to interface with a device, and then they just contracted out the work after I had already finished it!

Looking back to that experience I would have mentioned the problem sooner. I would start by asking your manager why they don't use the code you work on. Maybe he has a standard of performance or readability that he's just not communicating. Maybe he doesn't want to use code for production unless he knows exactly what's going on with it -- code reviews may be the answer.

If you can't resolve this issue soon I would start looking at other opportunities, because he obviously isn't valuing the time you're putting in.

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Try something like this

(Boss's name), I've noticed that you've changed some of my code. I want to do better next time, could you point out what you changed, why, and what I should look to do in the future to save you some work?

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Why don't you try looking over his code and seeing how he did it differently than you did. Then use that knowledge in the next assignment.

And when you are done the next assignment, ask for a code review and then make changes based on what he told you whether you agree with it or not. Right now, you haven't shown him what he wants, it is up to you to take the initiative to find out what he wants and then deliver it.

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