Thank you for sharing your story. I have experienced the same in my career. I have been a software architect for 33 years. I have changed jobs many times thinking and hoping it would be different. I haven’t found a company that provides an environment that encourages creativity or quality. All companies I have worked for have focused on money and the people focus on power/titles. Recently I took a big cut in pay for a job to do technical training. I enjoy teaching others. I took the job because I thought it would be fun and less stress. The company said “What crisis can happen in training?”. I was sold. It took me 4 months to realize that they were the same as all the other companies – all they wanted was money. They didn’t care about the quality of the training that was provided to client. The next sale was always the focus. I created 15 new courses for them in 3 months, but there was no thanks for all the additional effort I put in to create high quality training courses, but every week a spreadsheet was sent out to everyone in the company on how all the trainers measured up to their quota (in training hours) – how much money they brought into the company that week. No long-term vision.

I am the sole provider for my family, so I have to keep working. It is getting harder and harder to tolerate an environment where people are focused on themselves and money. I want to be productive, add-value, and help others.

Sorry for rambling about my own situation. I wish I had a solution. You are not alone!