When people congratulate me on that, I know in my heart that it's not true and it doesn't really make me happy.
It won't (make you happy, that is). Acqui-hires usually end badly, but they're good for your career because you've joined Those Who Have Completed An Exit. This industry tends to overemphasize past results (which are 90+ percent noise) because the people in power have no ability whatsoever to judge talent. Be thankful that you're on the winning side of that error source. After two years and some distance, you'll probably be at peace with how this has played out. You have something most people don't. You can say that you were acquired. Most people have to lie to cover up shortfalls in their 20s; you can actually tell the truth about your career.
Thus, I have picked up another job which I'll join in a few weeks. It is not in a very 'sexy' or 'trendy' industry and I have no idea where it is going to take me in two years.
Sexy/trendy is overrated. Those VC darlings are good at marketing themselves to broken people (such as midlife-crisis chicken-hawk VCs who want to be "cool" because, when young, they never were) but those companies often have broken cultures and harbor a lot of terrible personalities.
On the other hand, there are companies in "boring" businesses that have great cultures and, under the hood, are actually doing fascinating work. Personally, I'd rather do machine learning for a retail company or a bank than repetitive grunt work at a "sexy" startup.
Macroscopic sexiness doesn't matter unless you're an owner, and it sounds like you're not ready for that stress, and that's fine. Just do the work, save money, cut away time to learn the things you'll need to know for your next gig-- even venture into "resume-driven development"-- and get an education on someone else's time and risk.
You believe that you are good at what you do and are meant for great things but you have to do your job even though it doesn't do justice to your capabilities. How do you cope with that? Seeing your future as an underachiever pains you. What do you do?
Organizations tend to be talent graveyards. This is the norm. Want to change it? Possibly beat it? Get political. Learn about how organizations work (read Venkat Rao's Gervais series, then mine). Learn about different professional and union structures. Start writing. Advocate. Work within the system while undermining it (but never undermine the company that pays you; be more indirect and lash out at corporatism in general while leaving the activism and your day job separate; rabble-rousing at your day job is a bad idea). Figure out what it will take to drive out the MBA-culture invaders and get technologists the upper hand again, and then go and do it.
99.9% of us have our talents wasted by an anti-intellectual, status-driven corporate system. You're not alone. So figure out how it works and how to beat it, and recognize that the final outcome involves millions of people and is out of your control, so just learn to enjoy the fight itself.
It won't (make you happy, that is). Acqui-hires usually end badly, but they're good for your career because you've joined Those Who Have Completed An Exit. This industry tends to overemphasize past results (which are 90+ percent noise) because the people in power have no ability whatsoever to judge talent. Be thankful that you're on the winning side of that error source. After two years and some distance, you'll probably be at peace with how this has played out. You have something most people don't. You can say that you were acquired. Most people have to lie to cover up shortfalls in their 20s; you can actually tell the truth about your career.
Thus, I have picked up another job which I'll join in a few weeks. It is not in a very 'sexy' or 'trendy' industry and I have no idea where it is going to take me in two years.
Sexy/trendy is overrated. Those VC darlings are good at marketing themselves to broken people (such as midlife-crisis chicken-hawk VCs who want to be "cool" because, when young, they never were) but those companies often have broken cultures and harbor a lot of terrible personalities.
On the other hand, there are companies in "boring" businesses that have great cultures and, under the hood, are actually doing fascinating work. Personally, I'd rather do machine learning for a retail company or a bank than repetitive grunt work at a "sexy" startup.
Macroscopic sexiness doesn't matter unless you're an owner, and it sounds like you're not ready for that stress, and that's fine. Just do the work, save money, cut away time to learn the things you'll need to know for your next gig-- even venture into "resume-driven development"-- and get an education on someone else's time and risk.
You believe that you are good at what you do and are meant for great things but you have to do your job even though it doesn't do justice to your capabilities. How do you cope with that? Seeing your future as an underachiever pains you. What do you do?
Organizations tend to be talent graveyards. This is the norm. Want to change it? Possibly beat it? Get political. Learn about how organizations work (read Venkat Rao's Gervais series, then mine). Learn about different professional and union structures. Start writing. Advocate. Work within the system while undermining it (but never undermine the company that pays you; be more indirect and lash out at corporatism in general while leaving the activism and your day job separate; rabble-rousing at your day job is a bad idea). Figure out what it will take to drive out the MBA-culture invaders and get technologists the upper hand again, and then go and do it.
99.9% of us have our talents wasted by an anti-intellectual, status-driven corporate system. You're not alone. So figure out how it works and how to beat it, and recognize that the final outcome involves millions of people and is out of your control, so just learn to enjoy the fight itself.