
The Startup Blues - rigir
I joined an early stage startup after a career as a programmer in the military. Unfortunately I&#x27;m having some issues there:<p>• I feel I get &quot;bottom stack&quot; tasks: not really interesting, or I get mostly tedious ones. And in general feel like the technical position I&#x27;m in is a downgrade from my prior one.<p>• The organizational culture values significantly the more senior team members (joined a year earlier). They&#x27;re the ones who influence the product and consulted with, and showcase the product. When I tried to get more involved I got &quot;demoted&quot; to just fulfilling my day job.<p>• Although we are a small startup , (I was from the 10th or so technical employee) I feel that I pretty much came to a 90 percent developed product, and moreover, although I can&#x27;t read the feature I have a strong sense that I wouldn&#x27;t have a chance to grow (managerially or technically), as they&#x27;re 9 more people before me at the top of the food chain.<p>I haven&#x27;t got any other point of reference for this situation, so I was wandering whether It&#x27;s a bad situation for me, or maybe I&#x27;m in a bad slump (quite a long one) and eventually things will improve? 
Have you experienced something similar, and how did you cope?
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PaulHoule
Your situation is not unusual. It may or may not get better.

Probably your best bet is to be open about it and be ready to move on when you
reach a good point (say when the product is 100% done)

