I have been competitive. I'm sort of an all-or-nothing person - my level of effort is either below a 5/10 or I'm at a 10/10. I think it's mostly done out of necessity at this point in my life. Like I need to get something done and just do it. When I was younger and played sports it was about just having fun (winning is more fun), doing your best, and not letting the team down.

I don't feel jealousy about other people's success. Sometimes I do feel that specific people don't deserve it and that there are others who do (not me, but others). I know several people who are younger than me who are much farther in their career. I'm more disappointed by the company screwing me over than the other people not getting screwed over. I guess you could say I'm pissed at the refs for not giving me a level playing field.

I'm not sure I have much in the way of advice. The only thing I can think of is to step up when you see that people need you. I was an intermediate developer on a team without a tech lead. I saw the team's needs and that nobody else wanted to do it, so I did. The company screwed me over, never even promoted me to senior dev, and outsourced my job. But they can't take the respect I earned from my team and the other teams that I interacted with in that role - they can't take something from you that is earned from those around you. Plus, it can be fun to see coworkers' faces in shock when you tell them your an intermediate developer when they thought you were a senior for the prior couple years they worked with you.