If you feel that you're not growing professionally, or that you have no prospect for advancement (financially or otherwise), then maybe it's time to quit.

I think you know this by now, but there are 3 kinds of developers:

Type 1: Lives and Breathes Code

There's programmers out there for whom coding is the greatest joy of their lives. That's all they do. They get excited when a new version of Linux is released, they build their own frameworks for fun, dedicate their time to open source projects, and make apps because they're bored.

These guys are future senior dev material. Also, I find that the vast majority of them don't have a life outside of just coding (this might not be a popular comment on a site predominantly populated by programmers, but hey, I'm one of you).

Type 2: Enjoy Coding, But It's Still Work

There's also programmers out there who love tackling a new problem and sinking their teeth into setting up a new architecture, or system, but who draw the line on how much time they want to spend thinking about code. From my understanding you more or less fit into this group.

There's other things you want, or need, to do when you get home. You don't have the time to spend your evening "honing" your programming skills when you've just spent 8 hours or more in front of a screen digging for bugs through thousands of lines of code.

And hey, there's nothing wrong with that. Hell, it's your right to relax and enjoy your life when you get home.

Let's break it down: You spend 8 hours at work, probably another hour or so commuting, X amount of other hours preparing to go to work (making a lunch, getting dressed, etc), and you sleep around 8 hours a night. That's already around 18 hours a day. When are you supposed to get the time to spend with your family?!? We work too much.

This company wants to squeeze the life out of its employees - and the ones who want to put up with that are welcomed to do so. But it sounds more like slavery than an honest job when they want you to spend your personal time on work-related projects.

In my opinion - and take it for what it is: my very biased opinion - you should look for a job where you'll be more appreciated. There are companies out there that offer better life-work balance, and who respect their employees as people, not treat them like code-generating automatons.

It might be time for a change of scenery. Good luck!

If you feel that you're not growing professionally, or that you have no prospect for advancement (financially or otherwise), then maybe it's time to quit.

I think you know this by now, but there are 2 kinds of developers:

Type 1: Lives and Breathes Code

There's programmers out there for whom coding is the greatest joy of their lives. That's all they do. They get excited when a new version of Linux is released, they build their own frameworks for fun, dedicate their time to open source projects, and make apps because they're bored.

These guys are future senior dev material. Also, I find that the vast majority of them don't have a life outside of just coding (this might not be a popular comment on a site predominantly populated by programmers, but hey, I'm one of you).

Type 2: Enjoy Coding, But It's Still Work

There's also programmers out there who love tackling a new problem and sinking their teeth into setting up a new architecture, or system, but who draw the line on how much time they want to spend thinking about code. From my understanding you more or less fit into this group.

There's other things you want, or need, to do when you get home. You don't have the time to spend your evening "honing" your programming skills when you've just spent 8 hours or more in front of a screen digging for bugs through thousands of lines of code.

And hey, there's nothing wrong with that. Hell, it's your right to relax and enjoy your life when you get home.

Let's break it down: You spend 8 hours at work, probably another hour or so commuting, X amount of other hours preparing to go to work (making a lunch, getting dressed, etc), and you sleep around 8 hours a night. That's already around 18 hours a day. When are you supposed to get the time to spend with your family?!? We work too much.

This company wants to squeeze the life out of its employees - and the ones who want to put up with that are welcomed to do so. But it sounds more like slavery than an honest job when they want you to spend your personal time on work-related projects.

In my opinion - and take it for what it is: my very biased opinion - you should look for a job where you'll be more appreciated. There are companies out there that offer better life-work balance, and who respect their employees as people, not treat them like code-generating automatons.

It might be time for a change of scenery. Good luck!