This is a great reply, and I want to second a lot of the points brought up. Adding on, the original developer is almost certainly aware of definciencies in the

This is a great reply, and I want to second a lot of the points brought up. Adding on, the original developer is almost certainly aware of definciencies in the code. My guess is that they are largely a result of rushed deadline, changing scope, and feature creep than they are the result of bad engineering. When you need to get a new build out at 11pm because you have an angry client on the phone, it can be tempting to say “I know this is bad practice, but I’m just throwing this in the controller to get it working for now. I’ll fix it in the morning.” Especially at a small company without solid engineering practices, this happens enough times and you’ve eventually got an application with no meaningful organization or architecture. Having been in charge of an app that started to look like this, i know that I would have loved a new dev to come in and say “I want to familiarize myself with this codebase by writing some tests, and seeing if there is any basic refactoring I can do. Where is a good place to get started?” The original developer probably wants to write those tests himself, but either has too much on this plate, or doesn’t realize how much time he’s wasting by working on a fragile codebase. All in all, as other posters have mentioned, stay positive, and see how you can clean up and improve your little corner of the world. One last point, I might take this as a small red flag. Don’t quit over this, but keep it in mind. If management isn’t willing or able to put engineering practices first, or to let engineers do their jobs the way they’re supposed to be done, it could signal other issues.