tldr; It sounds to me like you are in the wrong job. You are obviously keen to write good quality code in a modern-ish framework/paradigm. --- You have to rea

tldr; It sounds to me like you are in the wrong job. You are obviously keen to write good quality code in a modern-ish framework/paradigm. --- You have to realise that the company you are working for now might be suffering from industrial inertia - also, unless you are privvy to their financials, you probably have no idea of any pressure they are under to make ends meet. In general, selling something that you've already sunk costs into is more cost-effective than writing something new and then selling it, so if their primary objective at the moment is to make money and they have a system that is working, they will probably keep pushing it. It is rare, though not unheard of, for a company to be so developer focussed that they will undertake a wholesale refactor of their code base if it is currently bringing home the bacon. Also in something very old and convoluted (as you've said pull on one part and another part will collapse), refactoring is often less time-efficient than simply writing it from scratch. Ask yourself "if I manage to refactor this into a best-of-breed code, will I be enjoy putting the time and effort into it on a daily basis? or will it just be an albatross around my neck every morning until it is done?" Consider your goals - you could consider staying at the company and learning about the business end (i.e. actually selling the software), maybe make some valuable contacts - that's a good goal but it might not be the right goal for you. If you currently just want to write beautiful code, then find somewhere else to work - perhaps a more greenfield development without legacy code. edit to add a potentially relevant link on stackexchange that i've just come across: http://programmers.stackexchange.com/questions/155488/ive-inherited-200k-lines-of-spaghetti-code-what-now http://programmers.stackexchange.com/questions/155488/ive-in...