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Jake
Jake

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Developer in need of Career Advice

Hi, I am in need of some Career Advice.

I started as a Junior Java Developer in a great company, vision-net. I was young and my commute was 4 hrs per day, meaning 20hrs per week commuting. I had no social life! But i enjoyed my work and my learning from my team. I felt important and like a Programmer, learning everyday and becoming someone.

But the commute killed me and after 13months a job opertunity closer to home came up. They were moving their sites to a new platform (with a team based in India) and i thaught it was a good fit. Initally i had to manage the older website, wrote in Classic ASP and would be slowly introduced to the newer platform (JavaScript, AWS, YAML etc)

It was 2 years before i got any exposure to the new platform. The reason being, our manager wanted me to stay on the legacy site as they were the site creating revenue and i had the most knowledge. My team (apart from the Indian team) consisted of 3 developers. Now, our manager has been let go because of how she used her power to make myself and a collegue do her work. This resulted in not getting onto the new platform quicker. It was something i had to be brave about and contacted the project manager and team leads in USA / India.

The legacy site's had no file structure, no source controlling. I tried to clean the code as much as i could. I have learned nothing from it. i have lost knowledge.

Anyway...

Year 3 and because of our team size and lack of knowledge of the new system, our Squad lead (Based in India) has very little confidence is use and we do not get an real coding experience.

My CV looks like i am a really experienced developer, when i am not.

I apply for Junior Roles and because of CV I get questioned / Turned away.

I get recruiters matching me for senior rolls, interviews out of my dept and i am very frustrated.

I feel stuck in this role, which will probably not be here much longer.

I want to feel like a Developer again.

I have tried to do my own projects, but i get demotivated and angry. I have become a Certified AWS Developer which is good.

Any feedback/comments would be great.

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