I only have one side of the story, so I'll take it at face value. It sounds like both your boss and your manager suck at their jobs, and this is not a good plac

I only have one side of the story, so I'll take it at face value. It sounds like both your boss and your manager suck at their jobs, and this is not a good place to be long term. I'm going to assume that as your first job out of college, you don't have a lot of leadership experience. > First, he basically tells me this project should have been finished a long time ago and he can't believe it's taken this long etc. This isn't your problem, and your boss is a dunce. It's your managers job to ensure project deadlines and status are communicated, as well as any delays. It's your boss's job to KNOW why one of their projects has been delayed this long. There exists a myriad of effective processes for SDLC to manage project software schedules. > He looks at the code and criticizes design decisions, some of which were made largely on my manager's explicit suggestions. I'll give you the benefit of the doubt, that your boss wasn't merely having you defend your decisions--having to justify decisions is part of being an engineer. Reaching beyond your manager to provide comments on your code is not helpful (as evident in that it took the wind out from your sails). Good software teams will utilize code reviews to provide that feedback. And if your boss had comments about the code, he should have talked to your manager about it. > I have no clue what happened in that meeting and I haven't heard anything about it from either of them since. I have to wonder why your manager hasn't bothered to share with you what the outcome was. However, if it's something you're curious about, definitely ask. > I really did work hard, so it's demotivating that it feels like the result of me working hard is unappreciated. It's not that. There are a lot of bad bosses out there, and this is the effect they have on really talented workers. > How should I proceed? Work just hard enough not to get fired, and find a side hustle 2nd job. Or have an honest conversation with your manager about how that meeting felt. If it were me, and one of my talented team-members felt like they got s*t on by the skip, I'd want to know, and I would work to repair that relationship (personally my relationship with my skip-levels is one of the most powerful tools I have as a leader).