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by dkarapetyan 3385 days ago
All code is legacy code. Use it as a proving ground for learning how to deal with legacy code. Otherwise you will always be bitter and upset no matter where you go. The only way to work on greenfield projects is to start something from scratch on your own.
2 comments

1. There's shades of legacy code, 20 years of rot is way different than 5 years. There's also different states of legacy code, and it sounds like this is not in the good state. So being sold on one universe where the real universe is so far off, that's a special case of embitterment that's maybe more justified than lesser lies.

2. I don't necessarily agree with the premise, he's not looking for a greenfields project, he's looking to use the toolset he was sold on during the interview process. There's plenty of established companies that have moved from xyz -> React in the past year or so.

This seems a classic case of being either deceptive or self-deluded from the interviewing side, with classic results. Its foolish, it rarely results in good things, and it's a huge waste of time for everyone when interviewers are not straightforward with candidates. Don't do it, and I would not feel bad for a second leaving a place that pulled that.

No, no.
No, no what? Do you have counterexamples where established businesses don't have to deal or interface with legacy code? If so I want to work at this magical enterprise.

According to OP this company has been around for 10+ years. It'd be a miracle if they didn't have legacy code.

Agency work, for one.
Really? Which agency is that?
Ad agency business (not adtech). I work for a digital production agency that caters to ad agencies, doing digital campaigns (vr, mobile games/apps, websites, webgl, anything digital really). My time on a project (code, frontend) rarely exceeds 2 months, and after that I get a fresh new project to work on from scratch. I rarely work with legacy code and usually the tech stack for these projects are quite cutting edge, too.

After working in this business I don't think I'll ever be able to return to a "normal" type of business, although stress can be quite high and often there is overtime to meet a deadline.