I've worked for LittleCo, and now I work for BigCo, a F100. I outgrew the LittleCo. There was literally nobody I could talk to about my work, and doing stuff at

I've worked for LittleCo, and now I work for BigCo, a F100. I outgrew the LittleCo. There was literally nobody I could talk to about my work, and doing stuff at a higher level was probably threatening to a business with no succession planning. Sometimes I amuse myself by imagining things from a management perspective, which I'm supposed to represent. I'm a physicist, not a software dev, so I don't know VM or SSL, in their particulars. But still, if the company has a process for making those things, in a way that's manageable and secure for the business, then it's a step towards automating them. From that perspective, the tasks that you did at LittleCo are seen as things that could, if not should, be automated. Or delegated. One comment in this thread mentions BigCo turning people into drones, but viewed from a couple levels above you, doing work that could be automated or delegated, is drone work. Each "side" has its own view of what drones are and do. It may take some effort, or even just patience, to get over the annoyance of "friction" that doesn't seem to bother the higher ups, and focus on the things that they care about, or you care about, or both. After nearly 25 years at BigCo, the friction actually has a negligible impact on my work. I avoid taking an emotional stake in stuff that isn't valued when viewed from above. What I take away is the learning that's of more widespread or lasting value. Or you might like LittleCo better. In Man and Superman by George Bernard Shaw, two people are in heaven and hell, respectively, and neither one can stand it, so they agree to trade places. A couple things I've liked about BigCo: 1) It's unlikely that I will ever be the smartest person. There are world experts in my skill areas, whom I can talk to. 2) They've managed to stay in business, whereas not being able to stay in business was why the company had to sell out to BigCo in the first place.