[venusiant]

It's a hard decision, but in any life situation, you can walk away at any time. I would keep looking, when you find something good, move. If you have received a few rejections, don't be discouraged, still keep looking, it can take months to find a good alternative. If you are patient you will find something good. Keep your job while you look. Don't let your work quality slip too low while you are looking, stay on good terms.

Unless you were changing career, I wouldn't accept a pay cut. You might be bargaining with yourself telling yourself that you don't really deserve a job that you like better, so you should accept worse pay for a better job. There is a job out there for you with good pay that will be more enjoyable for you.

"Everywhere is like this" ... no, everywhere is different. The new place will have its own problems, it won't be perfect but it will be different.

"Don't quit at all" ... keep the job until you find something better. It is ok to make changes in your life. When you start working you get into a routine, you get used to the people and it can seem like the job IS your life. Change can seem not viable. But it always is. Be patient and make the right change.

[LeoHG]

Thanks for the feedback. I would admit, I have bargained with myself many times when I was looking at postings. One of the issues I feel is that I feel like I am not fit for some of these jobs, or I am a bit out of touch. It's hard to say I have worked on a large code base that requires thorough knowledge of some software framework (like Django, Rails, or Spring) or interaction with other components (database, APIs from other services, or even testing) when the last time I touched them were a couple of years during my internships. Maybe I'm just being a bit pessimistic.