Tell HN: Sometimes you don't realise how bad something is until you leave
Thank you for sharing.<p>I can relate. This is my first “real” full time job, and I’ve now been there 10 years with little to show for it, and not for lack of trying.<p>Software engineer for a small company, report directly to the owners.<p>Repeatedly, I pour my heart and soul into a project that I believe in, only for ownership to trash the project for superficial reasons.<p>I’ll do small things and get overly patronizing praise, and then when I try to initiate or lead something bigger, they crush it with passive aggressive, belittling remarks. They mostly just want me doing grunt work, despite my desire to do larger, “force multiplier” type work. Work that my coworkers and customers are asking for.<p>My self esteem is terrible and I haven’t left for fear that I won’t be able to “make it” anywhere else, paralyzed by the fear of ending up unemployed.<p>I’m angry that I have a 10 year career full of ambition that went absolutely nowhere, I want to leave, but it’s scary.<p>Your story gave me a great boost of encouragement to start seriously planning my exit.