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Comment by mikece | Hacker News Reader

When you get back to NJ you can ask your boss to rectify the oversight and give you the credit you deserve. If he's a prick about it there is always the option of changing jobs and letting your boss take the blame for not being able to support the app that "he built." Life is too short for such drama and it makes for an interesting story at your next job interview as well as the exit interview (kinda like the time I answered "Because my boss was asking me to commit a felony" in reply to why I was looking for a different job...).

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whilst I completely agree the correct resolution is to speak to the boss about credit and move on if you're not in agreement, it sounds like the sort of story to be wary about mentioning in future interviews ("I left that company because someone else took all the credit for work I did" raises awkward questions about communication and expectations which "because I won't commit felonies..." doesn't).

On the plus side, if a project's gone really well and is very important for the personal prestige of your line manager and the line manager is a little bit nervous about being unable to maintain and expand the thing he's getting credit for .... that sounds like a good time to ask for a pay rise or other improvements to your contract. That might be far more useful than the boss publicly conceding how little of the work was his own, and he can even spin the outcome as how effectively he saved the company money by hiring such a good quality remote subcontractor at initially below market rates!

> it sounds like the sort of story to be wary about mentioning in future interviews

Nobody expects honest answers when it comes to this sort of questions. If you reply honestly, you are condemning yourself to a life of 9-5 jobs. The correct answer to this sort of questions is a generic response "I am looking to explore new opportunities", or something similar.

As any experienced interviewer will know, “I’m looking to explore new opportunities” is code for “I got fired” or “I’m not doing well”. You’re giving the interviewer full control over what they want to guess your issues are, so it’s usually a better idea to be a bit more upfront (in particular if you can explain what you learned in the process)

Have you ever worked with people in HR at a large (more than 1K headcount) firm? Your mindset is that of an engineer's and you are overthinking things. An HR person doesn't give two fucks about why you are leaving your previous company in a high demand field like software engineering as long as there are no obvious red flags.

Yes, I hired people and managed orgs at companies from 50 to 100k employees. I have a bit of experience doing this.

I'd also say that if you're an employee of the company, you should be able to communicate with boss and CC... everyone. With updates. "Here's the latest update. Please let me know if I need to make any changes - To: Boss, CC: everyone"

Do this at most companies and you'll get sidelined fast. The management caste protects their own. Uppity ICs don't get "the attention they deserve" they get sidelined.

this was real weird behaviour to encounter as an IC. pre pandemic I ran into a director from another org that I knew from playing MMOs with, had a half hour chat during lunch with some picking of brains for a weird endgame raid strategy and afterward my manager pulled me aside and was like "whats happening is everything ok?? i saw you having a long meeting with a director in another org??"

Yep. The first organizations were military. You don't jump chain of command unless the integrity of the organization is at risk. Doing it for personal gain—even if justified? Instant persona non grata.

> Please let me know if I need to make any changes - To: Boss, CC: everyone

DON'T DO IT. You are cornering your boss, implicitly showing your conflict/concern. It'd backfire on you

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