Am I too young to burn out?

Posted by Steve McMesse on Programmers See other posts from Programmers or by Steve McMesse
Published on 2012-07-09T04:44:40Z Indexed on 2012/07/09 9:22 UTC
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burnout

I feel like I have burned out, even though I am only out of college for 5 years.

For the first 3 years of my career, things were going awesome. I was never anything special in school, but I felt special at my company. Looking back, I could tell that I made all the right moves:

I actively tried to improve myself daily.
I made a point of helping anyone I could.
I made a point (and read books about) being a good team member.
I had fun.

After 3 years in a row as being rated as a top employee, I converted that political capital into choosing to work on an interesting, glamorous project with only 2 developers: me and a highly respected senior technical leader.

I worked HARD on that project, and it came out a huge success. High in quality, low in bugs, no delays, etc.

The senior tech lead got a major promotion and a GIGANTIC bonus. I got nothing.

I was so disappointed that I just stopped caring. Over the last year, I have just kind of floated. During my first 4 years I felt energized after a 10 hour day. Now I can barely be bothered to work 6 hours a day.

Any advice? I don't even know what I'm asking. I am just hoping smart people see this and drop me a few pieces of wisdom.

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