while quitting is the easiest choice, there are other ways to deal with this situation and actually making your mark. This could really be an opportunity to do

while quitting is the easiest choice, there are other ways to deal with this situation and actually making your mark. This could really be an opportunity to do something great. After all, if you go to a place where the code is already great and while work will be much easier and more fun, there may be less opportunities at making your mark. the maintenance probably involves fixing bugs, and dealing with limitation of of the system. Instead of fixing those in a tactical way, one could carefully think the problem through, and provide a more meaningful solution (via complete refactoring at times) that actually makes the system n% better. Of course there is no luxury of being able to spend days on such a problem, so initially nights and weekends may be necessary to break through. Providing meaningful solutions on your own time will achieve at least 2 things. Your peers and management will take notice and start listening when you speak about the system instead of just giving you a task to patch bug #9821, and you will gain more intimate knowledge of the system than anyone around you (since you refactored it). This may take a few years, but through such hard work, you will gain ownership and control and reputation for being the person who made a difference.