My 6-year journey, from exponential learning to slow decay and what every engineer must understand early.
Introduction: This Is Not a Rant
This blog is not written out of anger.
It is written out of clarity.
I have spent more than 6 years in the IT industry. I have worked with startups, product companies, and large organizations. I invested my own time, money, and energy into learning real engineering skills. Cloud, backend systems, frontend architecture, DevOps, AI, and real production systems.
And then I joined a service-based company.
That is when my growth graph started going down.
My Learning Curve Before Joining a Service Company
Phase 1: Real Growth (0 to ~5.5 years)
Before joining a service-based setup, my learning curve looked like this:
Learning
|
| 🚀🚀🚀
| 🚀
| 🚀
| 🚀
|🚀
+-------------------- Time
What I was doing:
- Building real applications end to end
- Writing backend APIs in Node.js, PHP, Laravel
- Working with AWS services like Lambda, EC2, CI/CD, databases
- Learning system design by breaking production issues
- Getting AWS certified
- Creating side projects and real products
- Transform from web development to Mobile native app to Cloud Devops, AI, ML
- Learning by doing, every single day
My skills were compounding.
Every new project made me stronger.
What Changed After Joining a Service-Based Company
After joining, my daily work slowly turned into:
- Editing CSV files
- Working on no-code tools for email templates
- Micro-managed tasks with zero ownership
- Repetitive operational work
- More meetings than meaningful code
- Stress without learning
- Pressure without purpose
This is what my learning curve started to look like:
Learning
|
|🚀
| ↘
| ↘
| ↘
| _
+-------------------- Time
No growth.
Just maintenance.
The Most Dangerous Part: Skill Decay
Here is the part no one warns you about.
When you stop doing hands-on engineering:
- You start forgetting things
- Your confidence drops
- You hesitate in interviews
- You feel outdated even with experience
- You feel stuck, stressed, and mentally drained
I was not learning.
I was unlearning.
That is far more dangerous.
The 15-Day Reality Check
In almost 6 months, I barely got 15 days of real backend work:
I completed that work in 15 days because of my past experience.
And then… back to non-engineering work.
This confirmed one thing very clearly to me:
A good developer never looks for time to code.
The system either enables engineering, or it slowly kills it.
Micro-Management vs Engineering
Service-based companies often optimize for:
- Billable hours
- Client comfort
- Process over progress
- Control over creativity
Product thinking is missing.
Engineering becomes task execution, not problem solving.
And when engineering dies, motivation follows.
Mental Health Is Not a Side Effect, It Is a Signal
The stress, anxiety, and low confidence I felt were not personal weakness.
They were signals:
- That I was not growing
- That I was not challenged
- That my potential was being wasted
Depression does not always come from too much work.
Sometimes it comes from meaningless work.
My Advice to Developers (Especially Early Career)
Do NOT choose a company just for:
- Brand name
- Salary
- Location
- Client exposure
Choose a company where:
- You write real code daily
- You own features end to end
- You deploy, break, fix, and learn
- You are allowed to think
- Your learning curve goes up, not flat
Service-Based Companies Are Not Evil, But They Are Risky
This is important.
Not all service companies are bad.
But most are dangerous for serious engineers unless:
- You are very senior and control your work
- You are using it as a short-term bridge
- You have strong side projects running in parallel
Otherwise, your skills will stagnate.
Where I Am Headed Now
I am doubling down on:
- Real product development
- AI and backend systems
- Cloud-native architecture
- Hands-on engineering
- Continuous learning
I will never trade learning for comfort again.
Final Message
If your learning graph is going down,
it does not mean you are failing.
It means you are in the wrong environment.
Change the environment, not your self-belief.
Q: Are service-based companies bad for developers?
A: Not always, but many prioritize billing and process over deep engineering growth, which can slow skill development.
Q: Should freshers join service-based companies?
A: Freshers should carefully evaluate learning opportunities, ownership, and hands-on work before joining.
Q: How can developers avoid skill stagnation?
A: By working on real projects, owning features end-to-end, building side projects, and choosing growth-focused environments.
- Why Learning Stagnates in Service-Based Companies
- How Skill Decay Happens Without Hands-On Engineering
- Product Company vs Service Company: Key Differences
- My 6-Year Software Engineering Growth Curve
- Advice for Developers Early in Their Career