[anm89]

Eh, I've seen tons of terrible developers who still collect a pay check. If you acknowledge you need to improve you can't be the worst of the bunch.

It depends on what your goal is. Do you want to get better at creating software as a goal in itself? If so you might want to think about optimizing for lower pay check jobs at startups where you will get to work with talented engineers and do new and different things although be careful they actually have good engineers who can mentor. This could prove to be the most monetarily rewarding path over a 5 or 10 year time frame as well if you drastically increase your skills.

Do you just want to make money off of it? If so look for skills that are highly valued in job listings, maybe react.js right now, and spend a few months of your free time studying that one thing as much as you can and maybe build a test project like todo mvp. If you can do anything at all with react you can collect a paycheck somewhere.

Software has a lot of froth these days. You don't have to be incredible to get good outcomes in the industry.

[giantg2]

"Eh, I've seen tons of terrible developers who still collect a pay check."

Terrible developer here. I can say the stress of never knowing when you might get fired and having job options is very stressful.

[tolbish]

Do you not have a senior developer at your company you can pair with as a mentor? This should be someone who you can look to for not just software skills, but career management skills.

[giantg2]

I'm intermediate and have filled the role of senior dev and tech lead in the past (unofficially). My problem is that tech was a dead end (Neoxam and FileNet).

Now I'm stuck learning/relearning multiple languages (python, java) and stacks (ECS, lambda, Dynamo, S3, etc). I've been on this team for 6 months and have never used the same tech twice. For me, that makes it very hard to become an expert when there's no chance to use the same tech again - I need some repetition. I want to get to the point where I don't have to think about the stack or the semantics/features of the language and just focus on crearing a great solution. That's never going to happen here.

I also lack the drive anymore. I've been screwed over, passed over, and had my prior positions outsourced to contractors. I feel like why should I try hard if the company is just going to throw me away again.

[tolbish]

Oh so it's not really about being a terrible developer. Your choice to stay, I suppose.

[giantg2]

I'm not sure what you're saying.

[giantg2]

Why is this downvoted?

[anm89]

Keep your head up. The dysfunction of an individual business definitely does not mean you are a shhitty developer.

[giantg2]

It does. Because of the disfunction, I am no longer feeling the drive to become an expert. Why become an expert if the company has thrown me away in the past (outsourced my job to contractors)...

[giantg2]

Oops, that should read not having job options.