I joined a small tech-based startup in a junior technical role a year ago, thinking it was a foot-in-the-door. It’s turned out that the organization is very flat–close to half the people have been there over five years, and close to half the employees have management titles–with minimal income (< 50,00USD) and measley investor backing ( < 5M USD). The company’s pivoted and changed tacks several times, with no success.
It’s also turned out that my job is “code monkey”. The only thing keeping me from skills atrophy is spending about 1-4 hours a night doing saw-sharpening at home, which is making me nuts. I’m actively looking for work, but personal circumstances make it hard to pick up stakes, and I’ve had trouble securing remote jobs.
I’ve got two questions. 1. Do companies like this ever recover? 2. If they do, is it likely that opportunities will open up, or is it more realistic to expect a meet-the-new-boss scenario? 3. What’s a way to keep my sanity intact while I look for a better opportunity?