I built an email client, it sent emails, it also received emails, it had an intuitive and speedy user interface, and it touched on fundamental topics for a web-

I built an email client, it sent emails, it also received emails, it had an intuitive and speedy user interface, and it touched on fundamental topics for a web-application with users, quintessential topics for a back-end engineering role. Somehow the only criticism I got is that it was not simple enough. Perhaps the moral of the story is that many managers have no idea what the word "simple" implies in terms of software. This is a classic situation: Engineer gets asked to implement the "do what I mean" button by some manager, this is a magic button that when pressed will do whatever the manager wants at that moment. The manager acts shocked when they are told that this is not a simple request to fulfill. The manager thinks: "I am being tricked! I merely asked for a single button!"