> Have you gotten any feedback in your current role about why you're stuck? The reasons can vary from the difference in expected behaviors from level to level, no room at level +1, your current company/manager not really caring about your advancement, etc.

I'm in a family-like company, so there is not much feedback giving. I'm trying to change a job, but there are few struggles: (1) I can't really improve salary that much due to OP, (2) the market is currently shit, (3) even if I find a job, it sets me back to square zero.

> Is this because you don't (or haven't had opportunities to) step up to lead/own chunks of work?

I did lead/own chunks of work. But it just seems not enough to justify leadership roles. I get the "it's impressive, but we need someone a BIT MORE qualified".

> Do you plan to do anything about this? It's hard to advance without some amount of self-improvement?

When I was younger, I dabbled in many areas: game dev, web dev, os dev, embedded, assembly, C, Java, JS, PHP, etc. Eventually I found my career and my niche, but due to certain luck (or lack thereof), combined with my young naivety, I didn't progress fast enough to the style of companies that deal with high load, and other mambo-jumbo tech. And now, I just have a lot of years of experience in mediocre companies/products.

> Are you saying that you're motivated enough to try to bootstrap multiple projects, and have started a SaaS that actually has paying customers?

I do. I have a lot of motivation when it comes to actually solve problems. I talk with customers, do development, and try to find new ways to market my SaaS. I just hate doing to for someone else when corporate politics is involved.