[stevetursi]

When I think of "Dead End Job", I think of a clerk at a convenience store or fast food joint, the guy who drives a tractor for the company that won the contract to cut the grass on the side of the highway, or the janitor comes to clean our offices at night.

It's hard to imagine a working programmer making $80K at a stable company as being in a dead-end job. Maybe in the strictest sense of the word it's a dead-end if they don't have the opportunity to advance, but if that is the end, then they didn't do so bad - and if you're in that situation and you do think that way, ask the janitor who empties your trash at 8pm how he feels about your dead end job.

If you feel like you're not reaching your potential, then yeah, I know what you mean. I feel the same way. But me not reaching my potential is different than having a dead end job.