How to handle an unpopular intern who upstages me?
I am a senior developer who has been working solo on a long project for the past 2 years. I'm about 75% done.
Last week, my boss told me to work with one of our interns. He explained this intern has done poorly on every project, and spends most of his time goofing off online looking at cheeseburger recipes and modifying the Goosebumps Wiki fandom page. He told me to find something to keep him busy, because he's tired of seeing him do nothing all day.
I found a small piece of my large project to give him, and explained to him what I needed. 3 days later, he told me he was done, and went back to looking at cheeseburger recipes. I looked at his code and was shocked to see he had done literally the entire project that I had been working on. From scratch. I asked him if he had seen the code I already had done, and he said he didn't have access to it. When I told him that he was only supposed to work on a small piece of the project, he apologized and said he misunderstood.
I spent a day looking over his code and was amazed that he did everything way better than I have. Not only had he done all my work in a small fraction of the time, but it was cleaner, more concise (about 65% less code), performed better (about 4.5x faster), and had better tests.
I was about to run into my boss's office and tell him that we have a prodigy on our hands, but I realized that this puts me in an awkward position. When my boss realizes how much better this unpopular intern is than me, he'll probably think that I'm a very poor developer and will look for a way to get rid of me. (Company financials are tight, and there's rumors of upcoming layoffs). I'll have a hard time justifying my salary when this intern who makes barely above minimum wage easily outshined me.
However, I want to be fair to this intern. I'm really impressed with his work, and want to make sure he gets proper recognition and gets an offer for a full-time position. How can I approach this situation and give this intern his fair due, without putting my own job in jeopardy?
professionalism internship
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John Gopher BoyJohn Gopher Boy
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I am a senior developer who has been working solo on a long project for the past 2 years. I'm about 75% done.
Last week, my boss told me to work with one of our interns. He explained this intern has done poorly on every project, and spends most of his time goofing off online looking at cheeseburger recipes and modifying the Goosebumps Wiki fandom page. He told me to find something to keep him busy, because he's tired of seeing him do nothing all day.
I found a small piece of my large project to give him, and explained to him what I needed. 3 days later, he told me he was done, and went back to looking at cheeseburger recipes. I looked at his code and was shocked to see he had done literally the entire project that I had been working on. From scratch. I asked him if he had seen the code I already had done, and he said he didn't have access to it. When I told him that he was only supposed to work on a small piece of the project, he apologized and said he misunderstood.
I spent a day looking over his code and was amazed that he did everything way better than I have. Not only had he done all my work in a small fraction of the time, but it was cleaner, more concise (about 65% less code), performed better (about 4.5x faster), and had better tests.
I was about to run into my boss's office and tell him that we have a prodigy on our hands, but I realized that this puts me in an awkward position. When my boss realizes how much better this unpopular intern is than me, he'll probably think that I'm a very poor developer and will look for a way to get rid of me. (Company financials are tight, and there's rumors of upcoming layoffs). I'll have a hard time justifying my salary when this intern who makes barely above minimum wage easily outshined me.
However, I want to be fair to this intern. I'm really impressed with his work, and want to make sure he gets proper recognition and gets an offer for a full-time position. How can I approach this situation and give this intern his fair due, without putting my own job in jeopardy?
professionalism internship
asked 4 mins ago
John Gopher BoyJohn Gopher Boy
1
New contributor
John Gopher Boy is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
add a comment |
I am a senior developer who has been working solo on a long project for the past 2 years. I'm about 75% done.
Last week, my boss told me to work with one of our interns. He explained this intern has done poorly on every project, and spends most of his time goofing off online looking at cheeseburger recipes and modifying the Goosebumps Wiki fandom page. He told me to find something to keep him busy, because he's tired of seeing him do nothing all day.
I found a small piece of my large project to give him, and explained to him what I needed. 3 days later, he told me he was done, and went back to looking at cheeseburger recipes. I looked at his code and was shocked to see he had done literally the entire project that I had been working on. From scratch. I asked him if he had seen the code I already had done, and he said he didn't have access to it. When I told him that he was only supposed to work on a small piece of the project, he apologized and said he misunderstood.
I spent a day looking over his code and was amazed that he did everything way better than I have. Not only had he done all my work in a small fraction of the time, but it was cleaner, more concise (about 65% less code), performed better (about 4.5x faster), and had better tests.
I was about to run into my boss's office and tell him that we have a prodigy on our hands, but I realized that this puts me in an awkward position. When my boss realizes how much better this unpopular intern is than me, he'll probably think that I'm a very poor developer and will look for a way to get rid of me. (Company financials are tight, and there's rumors of upcoming layoffs). I'll have a hard time justifying my salary when this intern who makes barely above minimum wage easily outshined me.
However, I want to be fair to this intern. I'm really impressed with his work, and want to make sure he gets proper recognition and gets an offer for a full-time position. How can I approach this situation and give this intern his fair due, without putting my own job in jeopardy?
professionalism internship
asked 4 mins ago
John Gopher BoyJohn Gopher Boy
1
New contributor
John Gopher Boy is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
I am a senior developer who has been working solo on a long project for the past 2 years. I'm about 75% done.
Last week, my boss told me to work with one of our interns. He explained this intern has done poorly on every project, and spends most of his time goofing off online looking at cheeseburger recipes and modifying the Goosebumps Wiki fandom page. He told me to find something to keep him busy, because he's tired of seeing him do nothing all day.
I found a small piece of my large project to give him, and explained to him what I needed. 3 days later, he told me he was done, and went back to looking at cheeseburger recipes. I looked at his code and was shocked to see he had done literally the entire project that I had been working on. From scratch. I asked him if he had seen the code I already had done, and he said he didn't have access to it. When I told him that he was only supposed to work on a small piece of the project, he apologized and said he misunderstood.
I spent a day looking over his code and was amazed that he did everything way better than I have. Not only had he done all my work in a small fraction of the time, but it was cleaner, more concise (about 65% less code), performed better (about 4.5x faster), and had better tests.
I was about to run into my boss's office and tell him that we have a prodigy on our hands, but I realized that this puts me in an awkward position. When my boss realizes how much better this unpopular intern is than me, he'll probably think that I'm a very poor developer and will look for a way to get rid of me. (Company financials are tight, and there's rumors of upcoming layoffs). I'll have a hard time justifying my salary when this intern who makes barely above minimum wage easily outshined me.
However, I want to be fair to this intern. I'm really impressed with his work, and want to make sure he gets proper recognition and gets an offer for a full-time position. How can I approach this situation and give this intern his fair due, without putting my own job in jeopardy?
professionalism internship
professionalism internship
asked 4 mins ago
John Gopher BoyJohn Gopher Boy
1
New contributor
John Gopher Boy is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
asked 4 mins ago
John Gopher BoyJohn Gopher Boy
1
New contributor
John Gopher Boy is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
asked 4 mins ago
John Gopher BoyJohn Gopher Boy
1
New contributor
John Gopher Boy is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
asked 4 mins ago
John Gopher BoyJohn Gopher Boy
1
asked 4 mins ago
John Gopher BoyJohn Gopher Boy
1
1
New contributor
John Gopher Boy is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
New contributor
John Gopher Boy is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
John Gopher Boy is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
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