The first thing you should do is go to your direct manager and discuss the feedback you got. See if they feel the same way. One of three things is happening. Either your boss went off on you without communicating with your direct supervisor.(unlikely) Or your direct supervisor feels this way and is too chickenshit to them yourself. Or they are throwing you under the bus.
The second thing you should take into account when planning your career is you probably aren't going to promoted under this boss.
Third thing is "welcome to the corporate world!" You probably need to do two things more often. One is request feedback from your direct supervisor more often. The second is let people know what you're doing, how you're doing it, and what circumstances are holding you back. Basically if someone changes something and that means you're going to miss your deadline let everyone know in via email. If you run into any issues that will delay the project, again send out an email explaining the issue why it was unforeseen, and how it'll impact the deadline.
> Either your boss went off on you without communicating with your direct supervisor.(unlikely)
I think whether this is unlikely depends on the boss. I've worked under higher level bosses who would say lots of things in the spur of the moment in a meeting that they would have forgotten ten minutes after the meeting ended, and which certainly would not have led to any longer term consequences. They were just venting at whoever happened to be present. I agree this is not an ideal communication style, but that doesn't mean it's not out there. As a newbie in the organization, I would be asking for feedback from coworkers about the higher level boss's communication style.
That's fair. But I haven't seen that communication style very often in engineering managers. I've only seen it once in an engineering manager in the last 12 years of professional development. (I saw it all the time when I worked service industry or sales jobs though.)
> I haven't seen that communication style very often in engineering managers.
It might depend on whether "engineering manager" means "an engineer who has risen to management" or "a manager who happens to manage engineers even though they have no engineering experience themselves". The communication style I described is indeed very rare in my experience for the first type of engineering manager. But in my experience it isn't for the second. It's not clear from the OP's account which type their manager's boss is (or their manager, for that matter).
The second thing you should take into account when planning your career is you probably aren't going to promoted under this boss.
Third thing is "welcome to the corporate world!" You probably need to do two things more often. One is request feedback from your direct supervisor more often. The second is let people know what you're doing, how you're doing it, and what circumstances are holding you back. Basically if someone changes something and that means you're going to miss your deadline let everyone know in via email. If you run into any issues that will delay the project, again send out an email explaining the issue why it was unforeseen, and how it'll impact the deadline.