

Ask HN: Should I leave my job? If so what are my next steps? - hacknat

I&#x27;m 26 years old. I taught myself how to program in college, mostly by making websites. After college, I took a part time job doing nothing, while the rest of the time I increased my programming chops. After about a year and a half I decided to actually try for a real job.<p>I was pleasantly surprised to find that I&#x27;m actually good at programming and I&#x27;ve discovered that I really enjoy learning new things. Lately, I&#x27;ve been digging into the Linux and Win32 apis, and have had some opportunities to write two native projects for my company and I really loved both projects.I&#x27;ve been working through Sedgewick&#x27;s Algorithms in C++ and I&#x27;ve been loving it.<p>I am incredibly lucky to work with great technologists who look out for me and let me do things like the two native projects I mentioned, but when it comes down to brass tax I&#x27;m here to make our UX better. I feel like what I&#x27;m passionate about is out of sync with how the company values me.<p>It feels like the demands of more responsibility and recognition are making it rare that I get to work on cool things. I&#x27;ve made some good friends here. I value entrepreneurship and business savvy, which there is a lot of here (I feel like I&#x27;ve been getting my MBA over the past 2 years). I&#x27;ve only been working here 2 1&#x2F;2 years and I don&#x27;t want to seem like a job-hopper. However, I don&#x27;t enjoy the job anymore.
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davismwfl
My 2 cents, if you feel you are more valuable look elsewhere. I am a startup
founder, and I don't want anyone to hang out that feels the have outgrown what
we do. At the same time, I want everyone to see how much more there is to
learn. But having come out of the enterprise space, I know there is a lot of
grey area. If you feel you should move on, no one should tell you different.
If you aren't sure, learn for awhile then make your decision. Base the
decision on how you feel not where you are at.

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hacknat
I don't necessarily think that I am more valuable than they recognize, it's
more like I'm being pigeonholed and I think I want to try other things. Thanks
for your thoughts though. It's good to hear the perspective of someone who
runs a company.

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Raphmedia
2 and a half year is very reasonable. You are free to go see elsewhere if you
are no longer happy there. I would start looking for a new job before leaving,
however.

Also, talk to your boss. Tell him you are considering leaving to do _, perhaps
he value you so much he will turn some things around to make it so you get to
do_.

