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by hnthroaway1926 2389 days ago
I know exactly how you feel and have experienced it in two different work environments, first as an intern during college (which only lasted 3 months but felt like eternity) and second as a senior level engineer for about a two year period.

Like some other things in life, people that haven't gone through this are not likely to understand the experience.

Since you care about increasing your employability I recommend that in addition to self-learning you also do the following.

Write up 1 or 2 short paragraphs that are mostly BS about the positive business impact that your work is having. Break this paragraph down into small work tasks or interactions that you would have needed to have in order to accomplish. Over the course of the next few months start mentioning those tasks casually when talking with coworkers. It is important to do this gradually so that people have enough time to absorb the false memories you are seeding.

Your goal is to build up a working memory among your coworkers of the awesome stuff you did while working there. You can then write these accomplishments into your resume and they will be backed up by your coworkers. Your manager especially will appreciate this as it makes them look like a great leader.

Good luck and keep yourself focused on the future!

2 comments

I appreciate the idea. You've definitely got something going there. Did you really deal with it for two years? It's hard to imagine anyone with senior in their title stuck with empty hands. I imagine my situation is linked with me only being exposed to about ~1% of this whole EHR transition project I'm a part of.
Yes, it was just over two years. I can't share a lot of details but it is one of those places where developers don't have admin rights and aren't allowed to install software on their machines.

I also recommend connecting with some of the people that are more involved in the EHR transition project because if they also want out then they will probably be happy to get you more involved somehow.

This seems to me to be vaguely like manipulation...