>> I really don't like being in charge of my own destiny with this kind of thing. This comment hit the bullseye for how passive this felt to me. Everybody is

>> I really don't like being in charge of my own destiny with this kind of thing. This comment hit the bullseye for how passive this felt to me. Everybody is different, and just being a focused contributor hoping people will assign you to what you like is OK. But it is career limiting. You are getting a chance to work in a new domain, and it sounds like your company appreciates you enough to probably let you switch to even some other domain, just not what you are doing. My advice is look around for something your company really needs you can provide. Make a big noise that you want to do that thing, and do that thing. Also, I would really ask around for some frank assessments. They could have moved you off your old project because the manager and senior engineer were close and nothing else. But there could be more going on there and you can't count on people to spell that out for you. You need to ask.