Stuck in career limbo /u/such_it_is CSCQ protests reddit

Been SWE for 7y now and really I should have moved to another role or management if I ever had the opportunity in any of the companies I’ve worked for. However due to lack of luck or bad company choices I never got promoted to anything or had chance to try another role internally (as there never were any) so I kept job hopping every 1-2y to promote myself.

Now I hate grinding LC every year just to end up missing getting in any good company out of bad luck like hiring freezes and at the same time no matter how much I grind I just don’t feel like I’m that good at it, I’m just not genetically predisposed for leetcode. Also I’m getting older so all young new engineers can easily out-LC me.

However I find myself stuck now in a company that I’m just a SWE who was hired to support a time zone and write unit tests all day and is very clear the team don’t have intention of promoting me or helping me do anything else because it’s in their interest to keep me where I am so I provide support.

Needless to say I don’t see myself staying longterm as it’s basically a dead end job. And I hate that I grinded LC to the best of my abilities just to end up doing this.

So the only option I have now is apply as SWE in big tech and then internally move to roles that require less coding, but in order to get there I have to grind LC and most likely fail or do something else?

Job market is also absolutely terrible right now,

Any advice?

Been SWE for 7y now and really I should have moved to another role or management if I ever had the opportunity in any of the companies I’ve worked for. However due to lack of luck or bad company choices I never got promoted to anything or had chance to try another role internally (as there never were any) so I kept job hopping every 1-2y to promote myself.

Now I hate grinding LC every year just to end up missing getting in any good company out of bad luck like hiring freezes and at the same time no matter how much I grind I just don’t feel like I’m that good at it, I’m just not genetically predisposed for leetcode. Also I’m getting older so all young new engineers can easily out-LC me.

However I find myself stuck now in a company that I’m just a SWE who was hired to support a time zone and write unit tests all day and is very clear the team don’t have intention of promoting me or helping me do anything else because it’s in their interest to keep me where I am so I provide support.

Needless to say I don’t see myself staying longterm as it’s basically a dead end job. And I hate that I grinded LC to the best of my abilities just to end up doing this.

So the only option I have now is apply as SWE in big tech and then internally move to roles that require less coding, but in order to get there I have to grind LC and most likely fail or do something else?

Job market is also absolutely terrible right now,

Any advice?