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I am in my third internship, this time as an iOS developer. I deem myself competent in my field and I work hard.

I have been at this company for 3 weeks and everything has been great, I have made commits, pull requests, and general contributions to the team's project.

At a meeting I saw one of my team members, whom I speak to a lot, on Slack with another person and he said:

that stupid f****** intern is going to get himself in trouble

Kind of shocked me to see that because:

  • He has been an extremely nice guy
  • He was typing right beside me, not all trying to be discrete
  • I have not done anything, to my knowledge, to get in trouble

My code could always be better, of course, I am new to iOS. But that is why he and me team lead participate in code review on my PRs.

How can I ask if I'm doing something I shouldn't or doing something wrong? (to that team member) Of course I do not want to mention I saw his conversation on Slack.

Notes: There is another intern in my area, but he does not interact with our team directly. The teammate has a joking personality.

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    It's quite possible that he was talking about the other intern. If you haven't done anything wrong, you have nothing to worry about. Still, asking about how you've been doing should make it clear about who he was talking to.
    – DCON
    Jun 23, 2017 at 13:56
  • If you take advise from your colleagues, show that you are eager to learn, don't break stuff (or work on a no-merge branch), and apply things that they tell you about then I don't think you have a lot to worry about. It's not the best decision to talk about that stuff in meetings, especially when people can look at your screen, but I doubt he was talking about you.
    – Edwin Lambregts
    Jun 23, 2017 at 14:08
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    Good language for you is to use how long you have been there. So: "Say Mr. J. Boss, actually I've been with the company now for NNN days. Given that, do you have a minute to tell me how I'm doing? Any feedback? Negative hurts but is most useful!"
    – Fattie
    Jun 23, 2017 at 15:13

1 Answer 1

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How can I ask if I'm doing something I shouldn't or doing something wrong?

Just ask your manager, or team mate, or anyone who could have valued input. "How am I doing?"

The other more consistent option is to set up bi-weekly or weekly meetings with your manager to discuss your progress and current work items.

In that meeting, I would end it with "How am I doing and what can I do better?"

With this approach, you are giving your manager frequent opportunities to voice concern while getting a steady stream of feedback for you to act on.

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  • This wouldn't necessarily help me resolve any conflicts with that teammate.
    – theblindprophet
    Jun 23, 2017 at 13:55
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    @theblindprophet Agreed, but what I think your really after is more in line with my answer. However, my initial response still applies. Ask the person that you are concerned with for feedback. While team member feedback is important, your manager should be giving you feedback on some interval so you know how your doing. I updated my answer to cover the team member aspect.
    – Neo
    Jun 23, 2017 at 14:01
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    Regarding the "overseen text comment". There is almost nothing you can do about it. People talk about other people behind backs all the time. There's just literally nothing you can do. Say it turns out that that person, X, absolutely hates you and wants to see you sacked. So what? Almost every place you will ever work, there will be some person who absolutely hates you and wants to see you sacked. The two founders of mSFT were like that to each other, heh. What can you do?
    – Fattie
    Jun 23, 2017 at 15:14

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