Some Advice Please

[BillUK]

Hi,

I would like some advice if possible, i’m not sure whether im allowed to post this here or not, if not could somebody move it to the relevant board, Thanks.

First a little background information about myself:

I’m currently 19, I’ve been working as a Web Developer in a workplace since November 2013. I stayed at an Agency for a year and gained some Experience and now i Work in ECommerce.

I may be young but my experience tallys. I started developing when i was 13, due to a poor childhood basically, i’d of rather sat creating something worthwhile on the computer than trouble out on the streets.

I developed and ran my own RPG game with over 200k users from March 2011-November 2013 (When i landed in the Agency)

The Agency job was good but very unprofessional and a lot of stress due to a very small team consisting of 2 devs, I moved on because i was promised the world and got nothing, took 6 months for me to get a contract…

Okay so i started where i am now in December last year so i’ve been here almost 5 months, not a great deal of time i know.

When i was employed here it was for the purpose of front-end development. They run their ecommerce business through ASP.NET (i have java experience from the RPG so c# isnt a problem) They recently moved over to bootstrap for responsive and ofcourse being a front-end developer i pretty much lead this.

My problem is that I have been here 5 months and my workload is literally non-existant. I feel that my skills here are being wasted and that I would be much better off back in an Agency. I have given it 5 months, my boss notices that I dont have anything on and says he will “find me something” to do but that never happens either, I could be doing stuff to keep myself busy, but i dont see what i’m achieving my coming in at 9am sitting down, writing hours of useless code to recycle at the end of the day.

I’ve learnt the basics of 2 more languages in the 5months ive been sat here doing nothing.

What should i do?

[Shikkediel]

To be honest, I’d be glad to have a paying job with a low workload.
It seems your time is well spent there, learning new languages…
Maybe you could have to initiative to suggest new front end ideas to be developed yourself (at the lack of input from higher up)?

[BillUK]

As mentioned above, i feel my skills are being wasted. I’ve tried acting on initiative and have wasted hours completing work to be turned down by a higher authority. They seem to have what they want and it’s working for them as a business, no need to change.

[Paulie_D]

I feel that my skills here are being wasted and that I would be much better off back in an Agency.

Random advice from strangers on the interwebz….

Time to get back to the job market and find a job you like. Nothing is more soul-destroying that feeling that you’re being underused.

If you truly can’t get them to interest you…move on!

You might find other examples of your situation at http://workplace.stackexchange.com/

EG – http://workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/43621/how-to-deal-with-company-that-doesnt-set-expectations-or-tasks-for-me

[BillUK]

Thanks guys,

I would never exit without a backup.

It’s not about feeling challenged, it’s about feeling like i have a purpose of being here, some mornings i wonder why i’ve even got out of bed besides the money.

I’ve tried Freelancing and i’m re-developing an RPG in my spare time right now, but like i said above i wouldn’t leave without an immediate backup, and that’s not going to be ready for a while.

[Shikkediel]

Despite my initial post, I have to agree with Senff. I was stating it too conservatively but then again I’m pretty old. Most likely I would be the worst at sticking with a job I can’t see really see the ‘purpose’ of (as I have in the past).

[Author]

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