If your co-workers are telling you that you are reinventing the wheel then you are likely not taking the time to understand the framework that has been develope

If your co-workers are telling you that you are reinventing the wheel then you are likely not taking the time to understand the framework that has been developed over time. You are a junior dev. They hired you to invest in you and grow you. They pay you in dollars, not pleasure. Your day 1 contributions are likely meaningless in the grand scheme. What they want to see is that you can read and understand existing code and that you are a team player. Any code monkey can go in and write functions for validation or logging, but if I am paying you to understand HOW you should do it, taking advantage of the (hundreds of) thousands of dollars of my investment, then I would be pretty frustrated with you if you rolled your own. I would be further frustrated if you disregarded my attempts to point you in the right direction. You are more likely going to have a positive impact by suggesting changes within the framework they are providing you than creating your own. Learn and understand what the code does and WHY it exists and then you will be able to see what can be improved. Coming in and saying that everything is wrong and persisting in doing your own thing, at your employers expense, will probably leave you without a job. To satisfy your need to learn and be creative, work on a side project of your choosing. You shouldn't expect your day job to give you 100% of your career development. A large part of it is on you and whether you are passionate enough to invest in your own development on your own time.