Do you have any mentors or anyone you can reach out to within the company to discuss your ambitions? If all this is not being expressed to anyone, it's easy to keep you where you are, especially when you appear to lack the confidence to move on. Express it in terms that you want to grow as a programmer.
Though you are fixing bugs, are you playing an essential role? If you quit, would they hire someone else to fix these bugs? Have you made yourself indispensable? If not, maybe you're not taking on enough responsibilities or taking the lead when you could. Maybe you require too much handling, or maybe you don't. It's possible you're undervalued.
Are you skills at fixing bugs any good? You might as well make the best of the situation and improve your skills at testing and code analysis. You will always be fixing bugs in any programming job.
It sounds like it could be bad company culture, unaware personal laziness, or a negative problem, or a little bit of everything. But now that you're thinking about your situation and what you want your future to look like, you're in a better position to overcome these obstacles.
You asked, "Am I done?" Not even close. Even if you're 10 or more years older than it sounds like you are, you can accomplish a lot over the long haul, even when you're stuck in one spot for the short term.
> Though you are fixing bugs, are you playing an essential role? If you quit, would they hire someone else to fix these bugs?
There's an entire department for this, 'sustaining'. I'm not sure what you mean by taking on more responsibilities; I thought I was at work, taking notes during code walkthroughs (they're never any good), running meetings. I can't really solve any more bugs faster, even the hard ones. I don't know how to make myself indispensable. They mentioned in my annual performance review that I need improvement on 'innovation' but I don't even know what that means.
My skills at fixing bugs varies. They're usually horrible, I guess. I've been there for a year and I still don't u nderstand the code base, really; I get jerked back and forth all over it. I can't remember any of it. The programmers look at me with contempt, now.
It's certainly possible that I'm some how 'lazy', though my initial reaction to you accusing me of sloth was mis-taken, I hope. I don't know how to read large complex code. Everytime I make a change it's always WRONG. I'm getting more hysterical the more stressed I get. I don't know what to do.
Though you are fixing bugs, are you playing an essential role? If you quit, would they hire someone else to fix these bugs? Have you made yourself indispensable? If not, maybe you're not taking on enough responsibilities or taking the lead when you could. Maybe you require too much handling, or maybe you don't. It's possible you're undervalued.
Are you skills at fixing bugs any good? You might as well make the best of the situation and improve your skills at testing and code analysis. You will always be fixing bugs in any programming job.
It sounds like it could be bad company culture, unaware personal laziness, or a negative problem, or a little bit of everything. But now that you're thinking about your situation and what you want your future to look like, you're in a better position to overcome these obstacles.
You asked, "Am I done?" Not even close. Even if you're 10 or more years older than it sounds like you are, you can accomplish a lot over the long haul, even when you're stuck in one spot for the short term.