Sure the ad-tech industry sucks. But they do use a lot of very interesting technology. If you are working for some of the better ones or more innovative ones,

Sure the ad-tech industry sucks. But they do use a lot of very interesting technology. If you are working for some of the better ones or more innovative ones, they will be using massively parallel computing, geo-based location services, machine learning, and have a pretty significant foot print on AWS or Google Cloud Services. Every single one of those is a lucrative career onto itself. Learn as much as you can! Think of it as the best 2.5 years of paid training you will get. Either be a master at one of those or be a generalist and learn enough in each of those to be able to make a contribution. In 2.5 years you will be able to name your price and pick the industry you would like to be a part of. With the bonus that you will be have enough tech knowledge to start your own company should you decide to. I worked for two ad-tech companies and they both taught me more about the craft of software development then any school or the previous 13 years of me working in corporations did. As long as the company you are working for is not doing anything illegal or fudging the numbers, I don't think you need to justify anything. Embrace the job, learn everything you can, and then you will be shocked how valuable you have become. Remember - you are trading your time for a paycheck. It is upto you to make sure that time is well spent and that it benefits you as much as the company you work for.