Ask HN: How to avoid places that do not allow me to grow as a developer?
&gt; - bait and switch, hired for the knowledge of a newer or popular technology, yet work is 100% legacy systems<p>Almost all important work is maintaining already running systems. Good green
field development that&#x27;s not just another instant messenger or social network
is rare and far in between.<p>&gt; - no mentoring of any sort<p>&quot;Here, he&#x27;ll be your mentor for next five years.&quot; That&#x27;s what you expect? In
other words, &quot;Let somebody teach me&quot;? You yourself are responsible for your
own professional growth (and well-being in general). Don&#x27;t expect anybody to
come and teach you; such situations sometimes happen, but you&#x27;re not entitled
to them just because.<p>&gt; - poor or no documentation and&#x2F;or tests<p>Normal thing. Nobody likes writing documentation.<p>&gt; - raising the issue gets me murky promises of things being better in the future, but no actual improvements ever come<p>Have you tried doing it yourself?<p>&gt; - weird and dated tools and systems<p>Normal thing. If it works and is robust, no need to change.<p>&gt; - lots of grunt work that should have been automated ages ago<p>Have you tried automating it yourself?<p>&gt; - people working here are not passionate about technology<p>First, define &quot;passionate&quot;.<p>Second, not everybody needs to be &quot;passionate&quot;. What you should expect from
your colleagues is to be good craftsmen, not to be some ADHD kids that change
frameworks every other week.<p>&gt; - verson control exists, but for some reason the projects I&#x27;m working on do not use it<p>&gt; - suggestions of improvements either met with resistance, ridicule and excuses<p>These two are the only valid complaints.<p>&gt; [...] with 2 years of experience of doing mostly [legacy maintenance] I feel like dedicating myself towards this type of work is actively hurting my future prospects.<p>&gt; So far nearly every single improvement came from learning on my own [...]<p>And what exactly are you&#x2F;have you been doing in your jobs and on your own?
Where are you searching?